Puppet in Pink
by understar
Summary: All these years they thought she was a fool for Sasuke. And they were wrong. But it's too late now...(Sakura fic- very OOC, PG-13 for some language & violence)::COMPLETE- sequel soon::
1. Snapping the Strings

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters, OOC though they may be.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

1. _Snapping the Strings_

..._while a kingdom_

_Sits in your palm, a people and power_

_That Death will steal._

..._the soldiers ate_

_And drank like kings._

..._but those beer-drinking sleepers_

_lay down with death beside their beds..._

... _war, wherever they rested..._

_-Beowulf_

Exhausted from a long day of training and staring at Sasuke (those two activities had become almost inseparable for her by now), Sakura opened the door of the small house. "Mom, I'm home!" she called out, at the same time wishing deep down inside that nobody would answer. For the pink-haired girl knew she'd disappointed her mother once again. She'd ask Sakura the same question as she did every night, and once more Sakura would be forced to answer with a truthful 'no'. _How much longer could this go on? For how many more years? _

Noticing that nobody had answered her call, Sakura shouted again. "Mom? You here?" Still no reply. On instinct, Sakura was about to yell "Dad", but remembered that her father had been dead for almost a full year. Neither of her parents were official ninja (both had dropped out), so there were no dangerous missions, but Sakura's father had died in an explosion at the low-level power plant where he worked, which supplied much of the Leaf Village's electricity. He wouldn't have been home anyways, since he'd used to work until late every night.

Picking her way through the messy kitchen, Sakura felt her heart race. She was almost afraid to go into the living room; she'd heard of these things happening before. Nobody's home...then you go to the living room and blood coats the walls...

Mustering up her courage, Sakura forced herself to go into the room. But nothing was there. No blood, no bodies. With a sigh, she surveyed the area, which was as messy as the kitchen, then almost leapt through the ceiling at the sound of a knock on the front door. _Please don't let it be them...Please don't let it be them..._Sakura panicked, inching towards the door. Pasting on her best smile, she yanked it open. To her relief, the only person she saw was Kakashi. "Oh, thank goodness it's only you..." she sighed. Then she noticed that her teacher was unusually silent. He cleared his throat, trying to get the damn job over with so he didn't have to see Sakura break down and cry.

"Sakura, your mother was mugged on her way home from work today. We found her body...someone stole all her money." Haruno Keiko had worked as a bookkeeper and secretary since her husband's death, tallying up the costs of missions and balancing budgets. Despite being known as an alcoholic, she had an incredible memory and intellect when sober. However, one drink could turn the perfect picture upside down.

Sakura looked shocked for a moment, then her face returned to normal. She wasn't going to show her real feelings, not here. Despite what everyone thought, she was an expert at hiding what she felt. "Oh... I see. Thank you," she said quietly, closing the door. Kakashi was thankful that Sakura hadn't burst into tears immediately, but he figured he knew what she was doing now that the door was shut; he could just picture her now, slumped on the floor and crying. He didn't expect to see her at training the next day.

But for once, Kakashi was wrong. As her teacher headed away, Sakura stared at the wall. Crying didn't even occur to her.

Her parents were gone. Both of them. GONE.

And now that nobody was watching, she could let her emotions out.

The corners of her mouth crept up into an eerie smirk and her eyes widened as the truth sank in. Then she burst out laughing, gleefully, like a child who just received a present.

Who knew? Dreams DO come true!

* * *


	2. My Lovely Childhood

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto/characters.

The ( ) 's are flashbacks.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

2. _My Lovely Childhood_

_No love for her, now, but nothing could help,_

_Word nor hand nor sharp-honed blade..._

..._The pain could find no relief,_

_She could only live with it, or leave grief and life_

_Together..._

_-Beowulf_

"Girls aren't strong."

It was one of the first lessons she could remember learning.

(First Day of School, Ninja Academy)

It was Sakura's first day of school. Shy in the new dress her parents had bought her, she hid behind her mother, small hands clinging to the only person she knew. "Don't be so frikkin' shy, Sakura!" her mother hissed, shaking her legs free of the child and throwing her to the floor.

"Oww..." Sakura whimpered, but silenced herself immediately at a harsh glare from Keiko.

"Keep on the lookout for that boy I told you about, dammit!" It was obvious that Haruno Keiko had been drinking earlier. "There he is! The Uchiha boy!" her mother exclaimed excitedly, shoving Sakura savagely towards a solemn-looking raven-haired child standing alone, with his back to everyone else.

Sakura hesitated. Though young, she could sense his aura, and it wasn't a pleasant one. Her mother noticed her reluctance and slapped the pink-haired girl on her cheek. "Now go say hello to him the way I told you, stupid." The words were growled as Sakura was practically tossed at the Uchiha boy. The boy turned around slowly at the presence of Sakura, and looked her in the eye.

"What do you want?" he said in an exasperated tone that was too mature for his years.

The pink-haired girl's face, previously plastered with the smile that had literally been beaten into her, froze and paled at the sight of the boy's eyes. "Ahem..."Keiko was becoming impatient. Sakura shuddered. She knew all too well what would happen if she screwed up this opportunity.

Summoning all of her childish courage, she donned the grin again and said, in a shaking voice, "H-hello, I'm H-Haruno Sakura...nice to meet you..." her voice trailed off to a whisper.

For a moment, the boy just stared back at her, and Sakura felt herself withering under his gaze. She knew at once that she didn't like him, not at all. He snorted in disgust. "I don't especially care what your name is," he said coldly. Sakura could feel her mother staring daggers into her back, so she tried again.

"Ummm...would you-" "Just get _away_ from me," the Uchiha interrupted in a tone that could have turned boiling water to ice. "You are weak. Weak people are disgusting." He then turned his back and sauntered off.

(Later That Night)

"Mommy! Please, stop it!" Sakura tried to shield herself from the blows that her drunken mother directed at her. "It-it's not my fault, _I_ don't want to marry that mean-"Sakura's mother threw a porcelain statue at her cowering daughter, which shattered as it hit her head. She popped open another beer and took a long swig. When she looked at Sakura again, Keiko's eyes were blazing with intoxicated anger.

"It's not your fault, you say? It's not your fault?" She slammed the bottle down on the table. "That excuse doesn't cut it with me, missy. It is too your fucking fault." With another huge gulp, the beer bottle was emptied and thrown at Sakura.

"B-But Mommy..."the pink-haired girl forced herself not to cry. Crying would only bring more punishment, though her face was so covered in blood and bruises that tears would go unnoticed.

"Don't you 'But Mommy' me, young lady. The Uchiha clan is one of the wealthiest clans there is. The Uchiha boy is the heir to that clan, so he's the heir to their money. You hearing me?" Keiko clawed open another case of beer. "Damn you, girl, I've told you this a million times if I've told you once. Marry that boy, and you won't have to worry about money for the rest of your life. You'll be rich. _We'll_ be rich. Your idiot father won't have to put in fourteen hours a day at the power plant just to keep us fed and clothed, and we'll live out our days in comfort!"

Sakura had heard this many times before. Though she was still a toddler, she knew the reason why her mother wanted so badly for her to seduce the Uchiha boy. Money. And not money for Haruno Sakura. Money for Haruno Keiko. But she also knew it was useless to argue.

"Listen, kid," her mother chugged another beer, words slurring under the alcohol's affects. "If you value your pathetic little life, you'll do exactly as I say. No complaints. Is that clear?" Keiko waited for an answer, then threw the half-full bottle at the little girl. It hit her full in the face, and the sickening liquid burst out all over Sakura's brand-new dress, which was already torn and blood-stained. "I _asked_," Keiko cleared her throat, "**_Is that clear?_**"

The pink-haired child struggled to speak as the bruises on her face began to swell. "Y-yes," she managed to stammer.

"Good girl. Now get up," Sakura's mother commanded, reclining in her chair with a beer bottle in each hand. The girl tried to pick herself up off the ground, but her knees gave out and she slumped to the ground again. "Get up already or I'll throw-"Keiko gagged on her drink. "_What the fuck did you do to your new dress!_" Without hesitation, she grabbed a case of empty bottles and tossed them at her struggling daughter.

(A Few Months Later)

"Sakura, I'm signing you up for a class in flower arrangement and manners. It'll be every other day at 1:30 pm."

"But Mommy, that's my extra training and practice time! I can't get stronger if-"Sakura immediately regretted having spoken up. Her mother grabbed her by her collar.

"See here, missy, don't you dare get all righteous with me. You're a _girl_, Sakura."

"But I wanna be a strong-" Sakura was slapped on both sides of her head.

"You are an idiot. Listen to me, Sakura- _girls are not strong_. Get that through your stupid thick head. If you want to charm the Uchiha child right into your arms, you've gotta learn the _feminine_ arts. Being strong will get you nowhere."

"What about when I study scrolls? You don't hit me for that." Sakura knew she was toeing a very thin line. And on the other side of the line was death...

"Numskull! Boys don't like _strong_ girls, I said. Nothing wrong with girls that are smart and cute. But never nerdy. If you wanna marry Uchiha, you've got to always be flirty, always be happy, always be **_weak_**. The guy is never saved by the girl, remember. _Girls are not strong_."

"But I don't want-" Again silenced, by the sound of broken glass.

Try as she might, Sakura refused to accept that, no matter how many beatings she got. However, as long as her mother was around, she was doomed to pretend, watching as she was shaped into a pretty, thoughtless flower-doll, nothing but an airy cherry blossom puppet that could be crushed with one breath. And yet she studied her scrolls with a passion, long into the night, waiting for the day when her strength could catch up to what she knew. Someday when her mother was gone, she would be stronger than them all.

Sakura's smile widened until it threatened to crack her face in half. Her green eyes glowed. Nobody stood in her way now. And now was the time to get stronger.

_How ironic_, she thought. _In molding their angel, they had formed a demon._

What a surprise her teammates would have the next morning.

* * *


	3. By Degrees

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

3. _By Degrees_

..._wait for the new year,_

_For spring to come... melting _

_The old year away..._

..._-but revenge _

_Came first, settling the bitter feud..._

_She planned, she waited, wove plans_

_And waited..._

..._and the time_

_Had come..._

_-Beowulf_

"Hey...where's Sakura-chan today?" Naruto asked in a tired voice, still yawning and stretching. "She's always here before us, even when she's sick...Sasuke-bastard, are youeven _listening_ to me!"

Sasuke groaned. He didn't care _what_ happened to that stupid whiny kunoichi wannabe. In fact, secretly he was quite glad that Sakura was absent. The girl was always so damn clingy and annoying...he hoped she had fallen off a cliff. It'd serve her right.

It was obvious that _something_ was wrong when Kakashi finally showed up at the training grounds, and Sakura was still nowhere to be seen. "Kakashi, you're late again—AND WHERE'S SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto yelled at the sight of the silver-haired teacher.

_So Sakura didn't come..._Kakashi wasn't surprised.

"Listen, Naruto, Sasuke...Sakura's mother died yesterday on her way home from work. Cut her a little slack," Kakashi said quietly.

"Oh..." Naruto looked sheepish, then ashamed. He was also a little puzzled...Sakura hadn't stayed home when her father died..."We should go see how she's doing ...maybe cheer her up too..."he decided.

"No need to do that, Naruto. She's right here."

Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke looked around to see where the voice had come from. None of them could sense any chakra.

"Above you."

All three glanced upwards, to see a female figure standing on a thin tree limb. She had pink hair.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto exclaimed. The girl jumped down and he ran to hug her. In a very un-Sakura-like movement, she flipped over his head as he flew past, and, in one fluid motion, stopped him from running into a nearby tree with one finger. Even Sasuke was a little surprised. _When did Sakura get so...fast?_

"Sorry Naruto, but no hugs today," she sighed, weighting her voice with dregs of sadness. Her face was shadowed by her hair- nobody would see the way her eyes glinted maliciously. Couldn't show her true feelings here or now; someone would get suspicious... Before Naruto could blink, Sakura was standing in front of Kakashi.

"With your permission, sensei, I'd like to take a month's leave from training," she said in a monotone.

_So she is grieving..._Kakashi nodded his assent. And without another word, Sakura vanished in a swirl of mist.

_This is excellent! _she thought, walking into her now-empty house. Which was empty for good, she hoped. _Training with those children would make me weaker, not stronger._

Kakashi had given her a month. That was all the time she needed.

* * *


	4. Small Thoughts

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

4. _Small Thoughts_

..._heaped high with hidden treasure, stored there_

_Years before by the last survivor..._

..._ancient riches_

_Left in the darkness as the end of a dynasty_

_Came..._

_-Beowulf_

Naruto sighed as he and Sasuke waited for Kakashi (late, as always) to arrive at the training grounds. It had been two days since Sakura announced that she'd be taking the month off from training; already he missed her presence. So what if she was always punching him for calling Sasuke a bastard. So what if she always rejected him. So what if she ignored him, acting as if she was on an endless mission to win Sasuke for herself. There was still something about her that almost made him think the impossible- that they were similar in some way.

"Yeah right.." he muttered to himself, shaking off the nagging instinct. He and Sakura were almost opposites. She had a kind, smart, caring mother, or at least used to have one. He couldn't even _remember_ who his parents were. Surely there was nothing worse than having to grow up without a mother and father by your side, to shape your life as you grow. Surely being an orphan from birth was sadder than living with someone who would guide you through your childhood, day by day, night by night...

What worried Naruto was that he hadn't seen Sakura since she'd made her announcement. In fact, nobody had. Yamanaka Ino, Sakura's half-friend and half-rival since forever, had even stopped by the shabby Haruno residence out of concern, only to find the door locked and the window shades pulled down. More- there was an undeniable atmosphere of terror around the place, like an unbreakable, unseen barrier to keep out intruders. Normally, Ino was pretty poor with her aura-detection (a fact that she preferred to keep private), but she swore that it was as if the aura was _meant _to be felt, and feared.

_Is that what losing a parent can do to a person?_ Naruto wondered.

_Not in the way you think..._

Naruto wasn't usually one to think deeply on any subject that didn't concern himself, but Sakura seemed so much like him...he couldn't put his finger on what made him think that. Once again he pushed the thought away in frustration. What _was_ he thinking anyway? Sakura and Naruto: opposites. As different as night and day.

_Who is the night and who is the day? Is that a trick question? Pray that nobody finds the answer too soon..._

* * *

Sakura flipped open the ancient scroll and skimmed through the flowing, ribbon-like calligraphy that spoke of a bygone age. She giggled with glee as she read. Most of the scrolls in her possession had been found while rummaging through trash on her long walk home from class each day; people threw out the ones in the hard-to-read script of earlier times –the dead language of their ancestors, opting instead for the more convenient text versions from mediocre hobbyist translators. Even the Ninja Academy had forsaken the ancient scrolls, choosing to rely on the same unskilled translations. It was a shame. 

How many facts and hints had been left out in butchering the tongue of the founders to fit modern views? How many passages had been garbled by those fools who called themselves scholars, with their poor interpretations and misread characters? Haruno Keiko had been one of the last true students of the scrolls, and what she hadn't taught her daughter had been learned from experience.

At least Keiko had been useful for something. Thank the gods she never actually noticed how many scrolls Sakura would carry home. Thank the gods she never checked their contents...

Sakura knew all too well that she had to bring her strength up to match, or exceed, her intelligence. So many years of forced starvation left her with only a greater hunger. What use was impeccable chakra control without chakra itself?

At last she found the jutsu she had been searching for. Forgotten by eventhe most elite shinobi, it was one of the nameless snippets that had been weeded out by the translators as unnecessary. _That is just as well_, Sakura thought, a smirk spreading across her face. Their loss would be her gain.

Luckily, that particular jutsu required little chakra, yet a precise command over the small amount used. Sakura knew that she was more than up to it. After reading through the instructions carefully, she drew a symbol on a scrap of paper and channeled the chakra into it, much the same way as talismans would be made. Concentrating as the scroll demanded, Sakura opened the nearby window just a crack and allowed the paper to drift out. She guided it with her consciousness towards the communal training grounds. If there was anywhere to troll for unfamiliar (and potentially useful) new skills, it was there.

Relaxing slightly, she allowed the half of her mind that rode with her talisman on the wind to study what went on at the training grounds, while continuing to read through her scrolls. Several of them contained unusual taijutsu moves and other martial-arts techniques that had been abandoned over time. It was hard to fathom how much knowledge of the original death-bringers, the shinobi that had forged Konohagakure, had been lost in translation. _How odd_, she laughed to herself. _To think that today's ninja of the Leaf are feared. _If they had half of the techniques that the translators had left out, the Leaf ninja could be practically _demonified_, if there even was such a word.

Noticing that someone was approaching her house, she sent out another part of her mind to test the intruder's chakra. A friendly aura, friendly yet worried- light blue in color. Yamanaka Ino. Sakura laughed ruefully. Ino was a reminder, another last lingering note of Haruno Keiko's ultimatum of control over her little daughter's life. As soon as she'd seen Sakura befriending someone, especially someone so vulnerable to joining the crowd of Sasuke-groupies, she'd seized the bull by the horns and ordered her to break her friendship; to snap it like a twig, unless she wanted to be the one who was snapped instead.

In the end, Sakura had succumbed to her mother's demands, as always. And as Ino gradually faded into no more than yet another gnat hovering at Sasuke's side, Sakura didn't really regret the forced decision. Now she pitied Yamanaka more than anything else.

But she still didn't want to be bothered. With a sigh of annoyance, Sakura raised the aura-shield a few levels. _Even Ino should be able to feel that now_, she decided. The aura-shield was one of the first things she'd worked on once her parents were gone. Sure, it took no small quantity of chakra, but Sakura needed the practice. Use more chakra, gain more chakra.

The shield did its job, and she felt the baby-blue chakra retreat nervously. Sakura laughed again and continued her studies.

* * *


	5. Your Friend

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

5. _Your Friend_

..._the trail took them up towering, rocky_

_Hills, and over narrow, winding _

_Paths they had never seen, down steep_

_And slippery cliffs..._

_- Beowulf_

Yamanaka Ino hurried home from the Haruno residence, almost shaking with fear. She'd stopped by to check on her rival (and best friend), but couldn't get within ten feet of the house without being swallowed alive by an aura of evil. It felt as if taking one more step towards the door of the place would have brought instant suffocation. _Was that what losing a parent could do to someone? Could it really turn them upside-down like that?_

_Not upside-down, right-side-up. But you wouldn't know the difference..._

Ino sighed. The Sakura she knew was always so bright and cheery. But she acted like a spoiled brat. She never paid attention to anyone but 'her' Sasuke. Ino knew _she_ was like that herself to some extent, but still...even when Sasuke rejected her, Sakura always tried again, as if she was unaffected by the boy's cold words. It was like the pink-haired girl only had one goal in life—winning Sasuke. Ino would have given anything to have the comet-tail of secret admirers that followed her rival around, but no—_Sakura_ never noticed those 'other boys'. She kept her eye on the prize. Uchiha Sasuke.

Ino remembered how the battle over that one boy had come between the two and destroyed their friendship. She remembered the day when Sakura had walked up to her, after school one day, and said in a quiet voice, "I'm not your friend anymore, Ino. I'm chasing Sasuke full-time now." Ino had stared for a few seconds.

Then she choked out, "Y-you can't do that..."

"Oh yeah? Well watch me, INO-PIG-CHAN!" Sakura's childish voice had risen to a yell on the last words. _Ino-pig-chan_? Not the most original insult, Ino reflected, but it was enough to bring a shouted response.

"I'm _watching,_ FOREHEAD GIRL!"

_And so it began. And so it ended._

There were times when Ino wondered if Sakura was crazy—giving up friendship for a pie-in-the-sky imaginary romance that would never happen. Now she pitied the pink-haired girl more than anything else. Still, it _was_ sad to see Sakura suffering the way she was. Ino could only imagine how hard it would be for herself if she found out that her parents were dead. She could only wonder why the girl was so intent on isolating herself...

_She could only wonder why..._

* * *

"Tag! You're it!" 

"Hey, that's no fair! You're a faster runner than me!"

"That's not my fault!" Two young children, a girl and a boy, played in a clearing near the woods.

"This game's no fun. Let's play something else," the girl pouted.

"All right...let's play hide and seek then!" The two ran off into the nearby grove of trees.

"I'll count," the girl exclaimed, standing against a tree and covering her eyes with both hands. "One, two, three, four..."

The boy scurried deeper into the forest as his friend continued to count. "...five, six, seven-eight-nine-TEN! Ready or not here I come!" The little girl scanned her surroundings, and saw a flash of color from behind a shrub.

"I found you!" she called, running over to the bushes. Then she stopped. The boy was standing in the open, stiller than a statue, as if frozen in place. His face was a mask of fear. "W-what's wrong?" the girl asked. She hurried over to him, and then halted again, overtaken by a feeling of danger. A stifling aura of doom infused the air.

"Let's get out of here!" She grabbed the boy's hand and pulled him away, racing to escape the sinister, suffocating energy that permeated the trees...

* * *

Sakura giggled as she heard the children scurrying out of the forest. _And to think, I was under the impression that children avoided this part of the woods at night,_ she thought, vaguely annoyed at the disruption of her exercise. At least she had the aura-shield. Two weeks of non-stop training had made the shield almost habitual. Even if she could never build up the inhuman amount of chakra that Naruto possessed, she was getting stronger by the day. And she had to remember- limitless chakra was useless if it couldn't be controlled. 

With a little smile, the pink-haired girl watched as the sun set and the forest was swallowed in shadow. She closed her eyes and covered them with her ninja headband, then took a kunai and threw it into the depths of the forest. This activity would cover an aspect that many of her scrolls deemed important—the 'third sight' or intuition. Her mission tonight: to find the knife she'd flung into the woods, without falling into any of the traps she had randomly thrown in earlier. And all within one hour.

With a last little laugh, Sakura leapt into the shadows to begin her task.

* * *


	6. Eternal Cliche

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

6. _Eternal Cliche_

_And then, in the morning, crowds surrounded..._

..._that hall..._

_From faraway lands..._

..._hurrying to behold the monster..._

_They gaped with no sense_

_Of sorrow, felt no regret for its suffering,_

_Went tracing its bloody footprints..._

..._to the edge of the lake..._

_-Beowulf_

"Sakura-chan! You're back!" Naruto was practically jumping up and down with happiness. Sakura, leaning up against a tree, said nothing. She made no sign that she'd even heard him. Her hair hid her face, and her eyes, so that all the outside world could see was her blank expression, her slightly slouching posture. All it could hear was her silence. Let them go on thinking she was "in mourning" or whatever it was called. Let them lose themselves in their weakness, thinking they were pointing out hers. She was cracking up on the inside just thinking about it.

Noticing that the pink-haired girl wasn't responding to his cheery greeting, Naruto quieted down, feeling drowned in the inevitable noiselessness. Sasuke was silent, Sakura was silent. If he hadn't known any better, he'd have thought that he had statues for teammates. Or rather, shadows. A vengeful shadow and a mournful shadow.

_How right he was...and at the same time, how wrong..._

Sasuke glanced at Sakura out of the corner of his eye. He was grateful for the unusual quiet. Perhaps it was better that his teammate's parents had died...it'd teach her how to live without her bubble of protection. It'd teach her that the world was made up of more than smiles and sweethearts. It'd teach her the meaning of true pain. And, at the same time, there would be one less idiotic fan-girl to worry about. Now if only something like this would happen to that Yamanaka brat...

Sakura knew all too well that showing even part of her strength during training would be a fatal move on her part. People would ask...questions. Questions that she didn't want to answer. Questions that, if she did answer them, would only lead to confusion. And possibly something worse. _Today's "work" will be painfully like play, _she thought, disgusted. How glad Sakura was that she'd taken the month off. She would never have been able to make any progress, with the way her teacher treated her.

Kakashi always seemed to look upon her as the team's weakest link, though he hid it well. It showed in the way he would always look over his shoulder at her during missions, when he thought she wasn't watching, the way he cautioned her against overexertion while urging the others to work until exhaustion. He always regarded her as the delicate one, the exquisite gem that looked pretty but was useless in the end. And until now, he'd been correct in his judgments. Until now...Sakura giggled silently.

Well, let him be surprised. She didn't plan to let on just how much she'd improved...the plan was to ace the day's exercises, but not to over-excel. Just to gauge her teammates' reactions. While doing that, she would suppress her chakra and maintain a smooth aura of general gloominess. That would be enough.

There was only one part of Sakura's lifetime of role-play that she could no longer uphold, and that was her "crush" on Uchiha. The boy's aura reeked of selfishness...and self-pity. It was a wonder that he was able to net such a huge fan club. How could the other girls like someone like him? Perhaps they were _all_ pretenders just like her.

_Yeah right._

It wouldn't be hard to explain why she was no longer among those fan-girls. A mumbled excuse about life over love and family values would be enough. Or maybe she wouldn't even need an excuse. Whenever the pink-haired girl's mask slipped (if that ever happened), it would be attributed to the trauma from her parents' death. People these days were really too easy to read. She would play the forlorn, slightly vengeful teenager, and the rest of the world would play right into her hands.

Sakura looked up slowly. She sensed a shift in the air around her, but gave off no indication of noticing it. Kakashi would arrive in a few seconds, late as always...

"Hi, guys. Sorry that I'm late...you see, I accidentally dropped my towel in the toilet and then I had to get it out..." That was as far as Kakashi got before he was interrupted.

"I'M NOT LISTENING!" Naruto stuck his fingers in his ears and began humming loudly, to the annoyance of Sasuke. Kakashi didn't miss the fact that Sakura made no remarks about his outrageous excuse the way she normally would have. And he didn't really blame her. You couldn't expect anyone, much less a girl with such a fragile psych as she, to get over the loss of both parents in four weeks. It might take months. It might take years. It might take a lifetime.

"Today we're working on target practice."

Sasuke and Naruto groaned in unison.

"That's old stuff!" Naruto yelled defiantly. "We learned that ages ago-" Suddenly a knowing look crossed his features. "Wait. There's a catch, right? There's always a catch when you say that kind of stuff... you act like it's gonna be something easy and then you..." The rest of Naruto's words were lost in his mumbling. Sasuke continued to look disgusted.

Meanwhile, Sakura appeared unaffected. She knew what the "catch" to this activity was. She also knew that it wasn't much of a catch at all. Not for her at least.

"Good thinking, Naruto...the catch is, you'll have to do it blindfolded."

* * *


	7. Today's Copy

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

_**

* * *

**_

_**Puppet in Pink**_

7. _Today's Copy_

_Found him lying dead in his corner,_

..._struck off his head with a single swift blow. The body_

_Jerked for the last time, then lay still._

_All the greybeards, whispered together_

_And said that hope was gone..._

_-Beowulf_

"WHAT!" Naruto squeaked. "Blindfolded! Are you crazy?" He looked like he was ready to explode. Sasuke seemed a bit shaken as well, though he said nothing.

The only person who didn't seem concerned was Sakura. On any other day, she would have joined in on Naruto's whining, or at least muttered something about how she hated these kinds of things. Today, she seemed almost...indifferent.

_But today was not any other day. Remember that, children._

Ignoring Naruto's protests and Sasuke's death-glares, Kakashi plowed on, giving a short lecture on how this practice would come in handy in situations where sight was useless, such as when your opponent had blinded you, or was hiding under cover of darkness. "Keep in mind, guys, that I don't expect any of you to get a hundred percent on your first try," he reminded, as he set up several bulls-eye targets in a wide circle. "You'll be lucky if you get two or three out of the ten, especially since these targets are unevenly spaced." The silver-haired teacher proceeded to pass out thick blindfolds to his students. "And don't even _think_ about peeking," he warned.

Sakura eyed the blindfold she was handed with expertly masked scorn. This was just too simple. When she'd practiced this activity during her so-called "month off", she had demanded much more of herself than this. As far as she could sense, Kakashi hadn't set up any traps that would go off if any of them missed a target. What was more, he'd actually allowed her and her teammates to watch him set up the targets. Was he going this easy on them all because of her; dumbing-down the lessons so she wouldn't feel left out?

Now Sakura was convulsing with laughter, though her face remained solemn and her aura hung dark. How long would it take for them to figure out that she didnt need their "kindness"? If they pitied her for being among the weak, why did they never help her to improve?

It was too late now. Sakura had gotten her strength by herself. Her talents were hers alone.

"Sasuke, how about you go first," Kakashi said. Sasuke grumbled something under his breath, but dutifully trudged out into the center of the circle of targets and fastened the blindfold over his eyes. While the recollection of the targets' locations was still fresh in his mind, he grabbed ten shuriken and threw them. Taking off the cloth that covered his eyes, the raven-haired boy was more than a little disappointed to find that only four of his weapons had hit their marks.

Kakashi seemed a bit surprised, and pleased at the same time. Naruto remarked that he could have done better any day. Then all three were silent, as if waiting for something more.

_Something that would never come..._

They were waiting for Sakura to beam and come running over, to squeal her trademark "Sasuke-kun!", to babble about how he was always so smart and she just _knew_ he was a prodigy. When this didn't happen, three different emotions flickered on three different faces.

A flicker of pained understanding.

A flicker of utter relief.

A flicker of confusion, followed by one of question.

And the fourth face, half-hidden in shadow, that didn't flicker at all.

Kakashi sighed knowingly. "Naruto, you're up next," he announced, causing Naruto to start complaining once more as he grudgingly pulled on his blindfold and stomped over to the targets. Instead of concentrating on where the bulls-eyes had been, he threw a handful of shuriken randomly. It was as if he had something else on his mind, something of more concern to him than target practice...

Green eyes watched it all with amusement. It was such fun, watching them squirm like this, her pitiful, _pitiful_ teammates, clutching at shards of stereotypes they'd known all their lives only to find that none of them had ever existed.

_Better the devil you know than the one that you don't...But what if there are none that you know?_

"Huh! I only hit _one target_!" Naruto was furious. "This is rigged! How'd Sasuke-bastard get four and I only got one!" Once again, there was a pause, as the three impatiently waited for Sakura to attack Naruto for calling her Sasuke-kun a bastard. Once again, they were awaiting words they'd never hear, and things they'd never see.

_Could this get any more hilarious? _Sakura wondered. _The people that call me predictable are the easiest to forecast._ She could tell that Kakashi was hesitant about calling her up to try her hand at the exercise. This was just too funny! Here was her teacher, sympathetic as always. He was hoping she'd at least be better than Naruto, knowing it would never happen...

_There's no such thing as "never", you know. Too bad he doesn't..._

"Sakura, you're last," Kakashi finally said. How true. Sakura was always last, had always been last. On missions, she was last in line, supposedly "watching their backs" though everyone knew full well that she was the one whose back needed watching. She was last to be dismissed from class, in trouble for paying more attention to Uchiha than to her lessons. The pink-haired girl became the living image of forever last, forever left behind. Forever average, forever alone.

"_Forever" isn't a word either. Never and forever...antonyms, yet synonymous in their meaninglessness._

Wrapping the black cloth over her eyes, Sakura snipped the thread of sight and tore open the seams of her mind. She let the images flood in, and saw the targets clearly. This was really not training at all, just a waste of her time, a waste of everyone's fucking time—

In one lightning-quick motion, Sakura sent a kunai into the center of each target. And that was that. She'd aced the test without over-excelling. And she almost died laughing as she saw her teammates' faces through the pathetic excuse for a blindfold that hid her eyes yet let her see more.

Naruto was practically bug-eyed, rendered speechless for once in his lifetime. Even Kakashi and Sasuke looked a little...no, very...amazed. Their expressions were priceless. Maintaining her death-marred disguise, Sakura slid off the blindfold, reconnecting the delicate switches that allowed her sight's limited abilities to revive from their short sleep. No, this wasn't training at all...this was boring. She would have to compensate by doing some extra exercises later...

Ignoring the reaction of the rest of her team, the pink-haired girl returned to her place against the tree, looking for all the world like someone who had just returned from a funeral.

* * *


	8. Little Things

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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_**Puppet in Pink**_

8. _Little Things_

_To journey away, is a windy wasteland,_

_Empty, cheerless..._

_So riders and ridden_

_Sleep in the ground; pleasure is gone,_

_The harp is silent, and hope is forgotten._

_-Beowulf_

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, once he'd overcome the shock of seeing the pink-haired girl hit all ten targets. "How the hell did you do that?" He gave a snide grin. "You even beat Sasuke-bastard over there!" Sakura said nothing. Naruto continued to chatter. "I just knew you had it in you! Did you do some extra training or something? If you did, it sure shows—you look ten times as hot as you did before-" Out of instinct, the blonde-haired boy cringed; he knew he'd said the wrong thing. He waited for the punch that was sure to follow.

It never came.

In fact, it seemed as if Sakura hadn't even heard him. Like she was off in her own little world...

"Yo! Sakura-chan! You listening?" He waved a hand in front of her face. She blinked and looked up at her teammate, as if noticing his presence for the first time that day. Satisfied that he had Sakura's full attention, Naruto rambled on. "So tell me, did ya train? How'd you get so good at that?"

Sakura yawned. She had an excuse for that one, too. "Well...you see...I haven't been getting the best of sleep lately...nightmares...you know... And I didn't really have anything else to do, just to keep my mind off of...everything..." She allowed her voice to trail off, as if unwilling to talk more on the topic.

Naruto stared blankly for a second, then looked at his feet a bit sheepishly. "Oh...um, sorry that I asked." He meant it with all of his heart. He didn't know Sakura was suffering so much; how _could_ he know? He'd never had to face the pain of losing both parents within the same year—he didn't have parents to begin with. _Poor, poor Sakura-chan._

The pink-haired girl caught Naruto's sympathetic expression and reeled it in for inspection. _Just great_, she thought. _Now _he_ pities me, too_. _My whole entire team..._ Sakura was disgusted. But really, what did she expect? The fact that they couldn't get over the belief that she was weak; that they couldn't see beyond her illusion of sadness—it all told her one thing.

She was a much better actress than she thought.

* * *

"Shit!" 

Sakura cursed out loud. She'd decided to try a new technique that had a whole scroll devoted to it, to make up for the easy time she had at "training" earlier. The method consisted of two parts; Sakura had already mastered the first section and was determined to move up to the second.

It just took so much chakra...

The technique that the pink-haired girl was focusing on was yet another that the translators had garbled. Users of the skill could cast chakra through their eyes to freeze an enemy into place on sight. Such a method could easily prove valuable—but it wasn't included in Ninja Academy curriculum, mainly because the faulty translation had left out most of the facts and substituted others. Whatever modern ninja knew of the skill were either too old to use it, or were unable to master the first level. Now that..._that_ was pathetic.

According to the scroll, a user who had completed the second stage could permanently paralyze an opponent, or even kill him. All this with a single glance at the enemy. But while this level required an iron hand in chakra control, it also called for an enormous burst of energy. And so far, Sakura hadn't been able to do that.

Then again...hadn't that always been her main weakness? The pink-haired girl was born that way, had been that way all of her life...But she could change.

_Oh, yes, she could change_...

* * *


	9. Little Things We Ponder

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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_**Puppet in Pink**_

9. _Little Things We Ponder_

"_Take these treasures, earth, now that no one_

_Living can enjoy them. They were yours, in the beginning;_

_Allow them to return..."_

_-Beowulf_

"Mommy! Daddy! Wait for me!" A little girl, long blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail, ran clumsily after her parents. Her mother and father stopped and turned around, laughter bright in their eyes.

"I'm almost there!" She yelled to them happily. "I'm almost ther-" She tripped over a rock and hit the ground with a thud. "Mommy! Help! Daddy!" she wailed, hugging an injured knee.

Alarmed, the parents rushed over to their daughter, picked her up, examined the scrapes on her legs.

"It...it hurts," the blonde-haired girl sniffled.

"That's all right. It'll get better," her mother cooed.

"But what if it doesn't? What if it doesn't get better, Mommy?"

"Don't worry, it will."

The girl wasn't convinced.

"How about we go to the new ramen shop that just opened? That039;ll make you feel better, won't it?"

"Yay! Ramen shop! Ramen shop!" The blatantly joyful sound of the toddler's voice, and the muted laughs of her father and mother, echoed through the street long after they were gone. Green eyes watched from the darkness of an alley as the group headed away.

The short, pink-haired child looked away. The sun was almost setting. _Mommy will hit me if I come home late again..._ She shifted the weight of her school bag to her other hand and sifted through the trash can one last time, looking for any scrolls she might have missed. The scrolls were her treasures. The only things she owned that were _truly_ hers.

She thought about the little blonde girl and her parents.

Was that what it was like to have a normal family? Could you cry without being crushed? Could you say no, and still live to see the next day? _Why isn't my mommy like that? Why?_

Maybe she just didn't deserve a mother like that. Maybe that girl was a nicer girl than Haruno Sakura. Maybe that was why. _My mommy wouldn't be mean to me without a reason. She's only mean to me because...because I'm a bad girl. _

She's only mean to you because she's got the bottle in her hand...

The sun started to dip perilously below the horizon. Shouldering her school bag, the girl brushed the dirt off her dress. _Mommy will be mad if I get my dress messy._ She hurried out of the alley on short toddler legs.

_Maybe if I'm a good girl, my mommy will turn into a nice lady like that other girl's mommy. Maybe if I listen and do as she says, she won't hit me anymore. Maybe...maybe it doesn't matter what I want to do. _She opened the door of the small house and timidly stepped inside.

_If I just keep doing what Mommy wants, I'll live to see the next sunrise. If I just keep doing what Mommy wants, I'll live to see her last._

* * *

Sakura shuddered. Her memories were assaulting her. Every minute of stillness, every time she stopped to rest, there they were. Each time she fell short of what her scrolls demanded, she heard the voices echo in her head. _Girls aren't strong, Sakura..._

But...had she really been so naïve as to think that her mother would ever change? What had made her think that her mother would ever be like the parents of her classmates? What made her hope that she would have, someday, a "normal" family?

The pink-haired girl allowed a bitter smile as she threw herself into her exercises. She hadn't been lying completely in telling Naruto that she trained to stave off nightmares. It was just a matter of what kind...

* * *

"Aww, Kakashi, can't we take a break from all this training crap and have a mission sometime soon?" Naruto whined. 

Sasuke silently agreed. Training was beginning to frustrate him. Before, he was sitting comfortably in an uncontested seat at the top of the team. But now...his eyes strayed to the pink-haired figure nearby.

It'd seemed like his teammate was always one step ahead of their training requirements ever since she'd returned from her month's absence. In many cases, she seemed miles ahead. Training, previously a breeze for him, was starting to take on the feel of a latent threat. A threat to his pride. A threat which suggested that...maybe he wasn't "the strongest" anymore.

Sasuke knew as soon as he thought it that this feeling was unfounded. So what if Sakura had made a few improvements? He didn't sense a chakra increase, and her aura, though almost frighteningly gloomy, was if anything lower than her "normal" energy level...

At least he was still the strongest one. Or rather, that was what he told himself. What he wanted to believe...

Kakashi sighed. "I'll have to ask Hokage-sama," he said in lieu of an answer. It went without saying that Sakura's loss was the main reason why Team 7 had been less active as of late. They hadn't had an official mission since the Zabuza incident nearly three months earlier. Even if Sakura's skills had improved slightly, her one redeeming quality -her sharp mind- was not entirely "there". But surely the boys deserved at least a D-rank mission. They had been surprisingly cooperative, given the circumstances...and Sakura didn't have to come if she didn't want to...

Yes. That decided it. He would ask the Hokage after they were through with the day's training.

* * *


	10. Little Things That Explode

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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_**Puppet in Pink**_

10. _Little Things That Explode_

_Thy tears are for those beyond tears;_

_And are thy words words of wisdom?_

_The wise grieve not for those who live;_

_And they grieve not for those who die—_

_For life and death shall pass away._

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

Yamanaka Ino's footsteps crunched over the leaf-covered ground as she scurried through the darkened forest. Her watch, its numbers glowing in an eerie circle on her wrist, told her it was half-past eight. But surrounded by shadows, it felt so much later...

She'd only meant to stay for a few hours in the woods, just long enough to relax, enjoy the scenery, and pick some of the rare flowers that were not sold at her parents' flower shop. But the blonde-haired girl had wandered off the path one time too many. Oh, she knew where the trail was...but it was so far away...

Ino had always been afraid of the dark. She remembered the times when she was only a few years old, when her 'friends' would dare her to stay in a locked closet for minutes, sometimes hours, at a time. She remembered the time when they pushed her in there, into the blackness, and forgot to let her out.

She could feel it now, the sensation as the dark had pressed on her from all sides, squeezing out the last bit of light with a force too powerful for words. Her pace quickened. And how happy she'd been when her parents came with the key and opened the door and the light ate up the black. But there were still times...still times...when she wondered if, one day, the black would come to eat her up instead.

Of course, that was childish thinking. She was almost an adult now and had no room for her fears. If only those fears would listen to her words...

Ino shuddered. The dark _never_ seemed to go away.

A sudden chill raced up and down her spine. This aura...it seemed so much like what she'd felt at the Haruno house...it was here?

A drop of sweat trickled down her the blonde-haired girl's cheek, in defiance of the chilly night air. This aura was stronger, more so than before—Ino could almost see its greenish-blue essence as it filtered through the branches of the trees. It was not a welcoming one. She wondered where it was coming from, but only for a second. Then her fears overtook her curiosity, and she ran for the path to safety.

* * *

"So-o-o...did you get us a mission?" Naruto badgered his silver-haired instructor. "Did you? Did you?" Kakashi silently made a movement of his head, so small a movement that you couldn't tell whether it meant "yes" or "no", or if it was meant as an answer at all. 

Naruto took it as a "yes" and began to run around in circles, waving his hands and yelling. "Oh yeah! A mission! Finally!"

Sasuke frowned at his teammate's antics. Kakashi seemed to be acting a bit...odd. Well, more odd than usual. Though there _could_ be exceptions, the teacher _had_ always given them a straight answer on matters of missions... unless he had a reason not to.

Then he remembered Sakura.

Of course—that was it. Kakashi knew that the pink-haired girl was going through a difficult chapter in her life, and that she would not be at her best in combat. She would be even weaker than she normally was, and the rest of the team would have too much on their hands to be perpetually worried about her emotional state. But Kakashi also knew that Sakura wouldn't take kindly to being left out of anything, even if it _was_ for her own good.

"Well, come on, out with it! What's our mission!" Naruto just didn't give up. Kakashi coughed slightly.

"The mission Hokage-sama offered," he began, stressing the word 'offered', "...is a retrieval mission." His voice was quiet, as if daring someone to ask for more. Naruto took him up on the offer.

"Yeah..._and?_" The blonde boy pressed on. Kakashi couldn't resist a sigh. He didn't want to have to say this, not with Sakura around. One word, one misplaced _syllable_ could cause a breakdown for the delicate cherry blossom and her mentality. But he wasn't going down without a fight.

"This isn't going to be a normal retrieval mission, Naruto. We're retrieving a person, not a scroll or a lost pet." Once again the silver-haired teacher awaited Naruto's response.

"Oh, c'mon, just spill it, Kakashi! The whole thing!" Naruto was getting impatient. Kakashi had no choice but to comply.

"The only child of one of Konoha's wealthiest non-ninja families is being held for ransom by a group of no-name thugs. According to our information, their hideout is located in Sand country and most members of the group have at least genin-level ninja skills. None of them are very dangerous...as far as we know."

Both Naruto and Sasuke looked a bit disappointed. "Why do we have to waste our time going after some kid?" Naruto wanted to know. "If the mom and dad are so rich and all, wouldn't they pay the ransom instead of bugging us?"

Kakashi flinched mentally at Naruto's blunt choice of words. He'd had a feeling that one of his students would say just that, just go ahead and blurt it out right in front of someone who...

"Even if the ransom was paid, we cannot guarantee that the child will be...returned. The parents want their child home safely. That is reason enough," Kakashi spoke, in a low voice that bordered on a whisper. Naruto stopped whining and stared blankly. When the meaning finally hit him, he dropped his stare to his feet_. How could I not know? _He chided himself, as quiet settled in. He deserved to suffer in the silence; how _could_ he not know? His poor Sakura-chan...she no longer had parents of her own that would be there for her when she got into trouble...

_Just imagine how much he'd pity her if he knew she'd _never_ had them..._

Kakashi continued to look anxiously over at his pink-haired student. She was standing off to the side, the way she always did. To a careless eye, she looked like any other girl, if you ignored the black ninja dress she was wearing in place of her faded red one. He hoped that she hadn't heard too much of what he'd said to her teammate, but if she had, nothing about her gave it away.

Same decidedly gloomy aura, same slouching posture, same blank expression. When had his student gotten so hard to read?

Sakura couldn't resist an inward chuckle. _My, are they worried about me. Do they really think I'm that simple—that I'd break down just because our mission involves a child and its parents? _The pink-haired girl knew that if she had been kidnapped while her mother was still alive, Haruno Keiko would have done the same thing as any "normal" parent. However, her teammates...they all assumed that the parents wanted their child kept safe out of simple emotional attachment. Love. Sakura didn't know this family's reasons, but she would have known Keiko's. She'd never seen her daughter as a person. She'd seen her as live bait for a dream that she couldn't hook on her own.

And yet... a small part of her wondered _why_ other parents were so dedicated to their children. Why a mother and father would do anything, sacrifice anything, to keep their child secure and happy. And why she'd never had those parents.

"Anyways," Kakashi said, raising his voice back a normal level now that the initial danger had passed. "That's what the mission is."

"Count me in!" Naruto exclaimed, returning to the cheery persona that everyone counted on him to have. Sasuke simply nodded, glad to have a mission, any mission, to relieve the frustration of training. And then they all turned to their pink-haired teammate.

"You don't have to go, you know," Kakashi told her, instantly regretting the words as they left his mouth. No matter how you said it, no matter how understanding your tone, those words always had the feeling of a taunt; a challenge.

Sasuke hoped Sakura would say no. Hoped that, for once in her life, she would realize just what a deadweight she was to them, how she was just a weakness and nothing more...

"Yes. I'm going."

Three words. Three expressions, on the faces of her teammates.

Surprise.

Happiness.

Disgust.

"You're sure you can handle it?" Kakashi asked tentatively. He felt like killing himself, knowing that these words, too, sounded demeaning no matter how they were spoken.

"Yes."

And then silence.

Which, as always, was broken by Naruto. "And the mission is when?" he asked eagerly, ignoring the seriousness that tinted the atmosphere.

"Tomorrow," Kakashi replied. "Be at the training grounds by six-fifteen sharp." Without further ado, he vanished in his usual puff of smoke, leaving Naruto to fill the silence with mutters about how _he_ would be the one that was late.

Sasuke glared openly at the pink-haired girl. Why did she always have to _do_ that? Even when it was made clear the she was unwanted; that she was a hindrance and nothing more, she refused to refuse. How he hated that girl, hated her for her lovey-dovey fantasies, hated her for her perfect life...Someday he was going to give her a bigger piece of his mind than she could handle.

That someday would be today.

He strode over to where she was standing. Six words to sum up his thoughts.

**"Hey, Sakura, don't get left behind."**

* * *


	11. Mental Challenge

Ok...this was an awkward chapter to write. It is indeed the long-awaited Sakura vs. Sasuke confrontation. I didn't want to make it violent or "big", so some of you may be (a bit) disappointed. But we all know that Sakura wouldn't waste her time physically kicking her enemy's ass (which would be difficult) when she could do it another way...

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Warning: May be more OOC than usual!

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_**Puppet in Pink**_

11. _Mental Challenge_

_Men will tell of thy dishonor _

_Both now _

_and in times to come._

_And to a man who is_

_In honor, _

_Dishonor is more than death._

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

"**Hey, Sakura, don't get left behind."**

As soon as the words left his mouth, Sasuke felt the slightest tinge of guilt. Here he was, picking on someone obviously weaker than him, who had just lost the last person in the world that she truly loved. That wasn't right...

As soon as those thoughts entered his mind, he erased them. Here he was, talking about "true love". "True love" didn't exist, not in the real world. He was starting to sound almost like Sakura. And what was the difference between "right" and "wrong" anyway? They were all meaningless words that relied on someone's opinion for their meanings. Reliance was a sign of weakness.

He couldn't be weak. No matter what the little voices insisted, Uchiha Sasuke was more than ready to follow through on his words.

The raven-haired boy smirked, waiting for the reaction that was sure to follow. He wanted to see Sakura's final breakdown, wanted to see her finally realize how useless she was. Maybe then she would get it through her thick head that she was only a nuisance, the millstone around all their necks—maybe then she would figure out that if she really cared about "Team 7", she would do them all a favor and stay home. And---

**=Say that again.= **

A voice hissed, breaking into his thoughts. Sasuke whirled around, to find himself face-to-face with a pair of eerie green eyes.

**=Say that again.=**

The voice repeated. It seemed to come from his mind...

Those eyes...they were sucking at his soul. Sasuke tried to look away, but couldn't. It was as if the eyes were paralyzing him, controlling his body like the strings of a marionette.

_Who's the puppet now?_

Was this Sakura? Green eyes, green orbs, green spheres, green spears that sliced through his consciousness. Another minute and he would go insane.

_All of these years spent building up your muscles, raising your chakra and stamina to inhuman levels, training to run faster, jump higher, leap farther...it's all useless. You've spent more time pruning your body than your mind...keeping the perfect outer garden but letting the inner one grow untended. If that's not weakness, Uchiha, I don't know what is._

**=It seems that _the_ Uchiha cannot back his words.=**

The voice had a cool, almost ethereal tone. Like an angel...or something worse.

**=I'm not one for picking on the weak. But from now on...=**The voice dropped to a sinister whisper.  
**=...You should be more careful about what you say...and what you think.=**

And then the green vanished, leaving nothing in its place.

The Uchiha boy was known for his love of silence. Some said it was the only thing he loved. But whatever attachment Sasuke felt towards the quiet was lost on this. This _wasn't_ silence. This was noiselessness.

Even in "complete" silence, there are things to hear. The rustle of leaves. A far-off bird call. Your own heartbeat. There is no way to escape sound.

This was different. Malevolently different. There was nothing to hear, nothing to see, nothing to sense. There was no color, no shape, no sound, no sight. Sasuke didn't know how long he could take it...

When the elders of Konoha talked about the horrible tortures that scarred the skin of unfortunate ninja corpses found in the lairs of the enemy, Sasuke thought that was the worst way to die. To die slowly, in so much agony that you couldn't summon your voice to scream.

Now he knew what was worse. Dieing from the inside, watching your mind and body separate, so painful in its painlessness.

* * *

When Sasuke woke up he was standing in the middle of the training grounds, exactly where he'd been before. _So I didn't die..._Of course, it was his own amazing, prodigious strength and ultimate power of mind that had gotten him through. 

_Not._

_=I'm not one for picking on the weak...=_

* * *

Sakura sat in the forest, practicing another technique. She was still proud of herself for mastering the second level of the scroll she'd been working on a few days earlier. 

_I wish I'd killed that Uchiha boy. I'm too merciful for my own good._

Ah, well. She had given him enough of a fright to plague him with nightmares for at least a week. Sakura had been ready to use the second level, but was surprised to discover that the boy's mind was almost too flimsy to withstand the first.

_How odd, that someone known as a "Ninja Genius" would have the weakest mind of them all._

The pink-haired girl laughed at the irony of it all. Sasuke had more chakra than he knew what to do with, but he was unable to break an illusion.

_That's because this illusion doesn't obey the orders of chakra. Only someone with a stronger will than the user can see through it and break out. It doesn't matter how much energy you have. _

That was something that the Uchiha would never understand. A person like him, whose sanity relied on dividing the world into categories, who labeled all around him either "Weak" or "Strong"...he wouldn't get it.

_Weakness is a lack of something. As is strength. _

_But strength is the ability to adapt to that lack. _

And Sasuke didn't have that.

* * *

Aagh...this was so confusing for me to write. I know that Sasuke is OOC throughout this chapter, no need to tell me that...and it may have seemed like Sakura had too easy a win... 

To dreaming star-sama: Yeah, I did change my source for the poetic quotes. I didn't think anyone would notice...but you did! n.n  
And about Sakura killing all the other characters...I wish! But it's a bit soon for that, and Sakura _would_ have quite some trouble in killing Kakashi...I sooo wanted Sasuke to die in this chapter but that would have been...erm, a bit incongruous. Heh.

Thanks to all who reviewed on the last chapter! This will most likely be my last post before school officially starts...so have a little patience...and remember to review for this chapter...


	12. Intentia

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Some people asked me if this could be considered an "AU" or "what if" fic. I say, why not? Whatever floats your boat...

And the chapter title is supposed to be spelled like that. It's not a real word, but it sounds so...interesting.

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_**Puppet in Pink**_

12. _Intentia_

_I have given thee words_

_Of vision and wisdom_

_More secret than _

_Hidden mysteries._

_Ponder them in the silence_

_Of thy soul..._

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

6:30 a.m.

Sasuke glanced at the battered digital watch strapped to his wrist. One of those cheap, cereal-box-giveaway things, not built to last but too ugly to break. He glared at the angular black strokes that formed the numbers, watching as they shifted.

6:31 a.m.

Kakashi was nowhere in sight. That wasn't really a surprise, though.

The training grounds were unusually silent. Even Naruto, the loudmouth, was quiet for once. He cast his eyes over the clearing, shuddering involuntarily when he saw the pink-haired girl that stood some distance away.

_First she goes and accepts the mission, even when we all make it clear that she's not wanted or needed...and then she makes so bold as to threaten **me**_, _the Uchiha, with pitiful, weak illusions! _he thought obstinately. Whatever short triumph the girl had managed to hold over him was nothing but a fluke. Yes, that was it. The next time he confronted her, he would _really_ teach her a lesson.

_=...you should be more careful about what you say...and what you think...=_

_Maybe you_ should _be more careful about her from now on_. That friggin' voice again. Sasuke glared it into temporary silence.

**_I'm the Uchiha heir. I'm a ninja genius! I'm strong, smart, capable...and strong! And I DON'T tiptoe around danger. I face it. _**He snarled at his conscience, or whatever the little voice was.

_But she's not "danger". She's your teammate. And besides...how do you think you would feel if someone treated you the way you treat her?_

Damn it, that voice was just like Naruto. It never learned to shut up. What was worse...it was making sense.

**_Sakura's...different, OK? She's fair game. _**Sasuke was getting more frustrated by the second, though it didn't show. **_Nobody cares what her "feelings" are. She's...she's our punching bag, OK? Just think of her as a punching bag. Punching bags don't have feelings; you just hit 'em whenever you feel like it and they never complain. Right? RIGHT??? _**

**_She's obviously weak; it doesn't matter what you say to her! In the real world, she wouldn't survive for a minute! Really! _**With these words, he knocked the voice into submission. But now it was a matter of convincing _himself_...

_Voices in his head...was he schizophrenic now?_

Naruto looked at his two teammates eagerly. _Finally, a mission!_ Not only was it a break from normal routine, but...maybe it would cheer up his Sakura-chan, too. He didn't expect her to be always smiling the way she used to; that was impossible. With your two most precious people dead, who would even want to _think_ about smiling? But...that aura...that gloomy, looming aura...maybe a nice easy mission would drive some of it away...

_Well, he could hope, couldn't he?_

He glanced from Sakura to Sasuke again, a little nervously now. Why did neither of them speak? The silence that oppressed the atmosphere was crushing him, bit by bit. Naruto wondered how they could take it, how they could keep from being driven insane by the quiet. He twitched his fingers anxiously, not wanting to be the one to break the spell ..._the curse_... of soundlessness...

"Hey, guys, so sorry that I'm late. Well, actually, I'm earlier than usual, so never mind about tha-"

Naruto breathed an inward sigh of relief at the arrival of the silver-haired teacher, and then quickly hid it with his patented display of rowdiness, grateful for the excuse to speak.

"Who cares if you're 'earlier than usual'?! YOU'RE STILL LATE!!!!!" he exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger in his sensei's face.

Kakashi chuckled quietly at Naruto's noisemaking and scratched the back of his head innocently. _Some things just never change..._he thought cheerfully. _...Unlike other things..._another part of him added. He told that part to shut up. That wasn't the way to start out a mission...

"So...if everybody's all ready, let's go," he announced, outwardly ignoring Naruto's accusations of lateness.

Sakura shouldered a tattered schoolbag and followed her teammates as they walked away from the training grounds. She was last again, she noted with displeasure. Always last.

But, hey, they didn't know any better. They didn't know that she _deserved_ any better...

* * *

Eek...I can't believe how busy I've been lately. I normally like to update every other day...but my schedule's just flown right out the window, what with school starting and all. And so I find myself sitting at the computer at...what, 10:00 p.m. already? And my eyes are aching (I'm wearing sunglasses!)...but I know I won't be able to sleep tonight if I don't type this up! (I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about...) x.x So any mistakes in my spelling, grammar, etc. are probably because of that. 

Thanks to all the people who continue reviewing with constructive criticism and ideas. As you can tell, it _does_ help. Even if I screw most of it up...yeah, it helps _a lot_. So keep it up!


	13. Walk in the Park

Wow! I looked at the reviews, and it seems I have exactly 90...so close to 100! I'm amazed...once more, thanks to all of you out there who are part of that number!

And sorry if the previous chapter was a bit...uneventful. I'm just trying to get as much in about the others' points of view as well as Sakura's. It just kills me to read a fanfic that's well-written otherwise but only shows a few characters' thoughts. It's not like mine will be any better, but I'm trying...

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

_**

* * *

**_

_**Puppet in Pink**_

13. _Walk in the Park_

_For the pleasures that come _

_From the world bear in them_

_Sorrows to come._

_They come and they go,_

_They are transient: not in them do the wise find joy._

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Kakashi, are we lost? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Y'know, I don't think you're supposed to hold the map like that but are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

Naruto was whining. Again. Sasuke growled under his breath. It was bad enough that they were lost in the landscape of sand; endless dunes shifting with the will of the wind, the merciless noonday sun beating down on their heads...and Naruto's complaints were only making matters worse.

But that...that _idiot_ just wouldn't be quiet for a second. What was he, allergic to silence or something? If this didn't stop sometime soon, Sasuke was going to explode, he knew it, just going to explode—

"SHUT UP, NARUTO!!!" 'Going to' became 'just did' in less time than he thought.

The blonde-haired boy jumped at his teammate's sudden outburst, and uneasily picked his way through the ensuing hush. His raven-haired rival seemed unusually irritable, like a cat that had been rubbed the wrong way one time too many. Naruto made no attempt to hide a sigh of defeat.

Deep thinking just wasn't his thing. He knew he would never understand the Uchiha; what was the point in even trying?

Sakura eyed her teammates' backs as they trudged ahead of her. Sasuke and Naruto both seemed drained, judging by their irregularly edgy auras which hovered in angles instead of flowing in waves.

_Serves them right for running half the way,_ she thought with no small amount of disgust. Naruto had been excited about the new mission, as always, and Sasuke...well, Sasuke probably just wanted to keep ahead of the others. He needed all the assurance he could get that he was still _the_ most powerful, _the_ ninja genius, _the_ everything he'd always thought he was.

He was like a person hanging off a ledge by their fingernails, clawing for anything and everything as a lifeline to safety. Unfortunately for him, safety didn't exist. Not the kind he was looking for. All that he'd accepted as true was false, and that was the strongest lifeline available.

But for him...grabbing it was out of the question.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed. "I see something! Over there to the right! It's the village!"

"That's the second damn time this hour you've seen 'the village'," Sasuke grumbled, more annoyed than ever. "It's just another one of your stupid mirages."

"It's not a mirage."

Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke all turned to look at the pink-haired girl behind them. She hadn't spoken a word since...since...nobody could remember.

"And what makes _you_ so sure?" Sasuke asked with scornful apprehension. No answer. Silence draped the air.

"Sakura's correct. That _is_ the village," Kakashi said hurriedly, sensing the tension-laced atmosphere. "According to the map, we are only a mile away from our destination."

"YES!!! We're almost there! Woo-HOO!" Naruto did a victory dance that earned him irritated looks from both Kakashi and Sasuke. "So that's where the kid is?" he asked, calming down slightly. Kakashi simply nodded.

"Hmm..." Naruto's voice sounded unusually thoughtful; maybe even curious. "Kakashi, you didn't tell us much about this kid, y'know." Now he sounded almost accusing.

The teacher tried to wring the disappointment out of his inevitable sigh. He'd wanted to treat the mission as just another retrieval, keep it impersonal, keep it distant.

For Sakura's sake. Just this once.

But that obviously wasn't meant to be. He took a deep breath and began a monologue that sounded as if he was reading straight out of some mission scroll.

"The child is four years old, female, name of Otsubo Motoko-"

"Huh?! _The_ Otsubos?!!" Naruto was obviously shocked. "They own half the real estate in Konoha! That family is bloody _rich_!"

Kakashi acknowledged the interruption with a curt nod and continued. "Like I was saying...her hair is black, her eyes are brown, she's just over three feet tall. Normal four-year old height. Nothing about her is _ab_normal, except for the fact that she is sole heir to the Otsubo fortune."

"Anything else?"

Nothing. That's all the data we have on her." Kakashi shot a nervous glance at Sakura, but she was about as expressive as the sand that swirled around them. It shifted in blindingly smooth layers, constantly moving, always in motion..._and yet never once did you see the bottom. _

* * *

NOTE: Please don't kill me for making an OC; as you can tell from Kakashi's description there is absolutely _nothing_ "special" about her. No dormant talents, no secret skills, no mysterious clan background. She is not a ninja, nor is her family a ninja family. She's just your average spoiled toddler, OK? Keep that in mind! 

I'd also appreciate some ideas about the mission! Specifically, a fight scene. I don't know if I should separate Kakashi from the group so they are forced to fight alone, or...??? Please review!


	14. Dust Motes

NOTE: My computer is having some difficulties with Javascript, which has been affecting everything from the QuickEdit on this website to the format of my chapters. I've _tried_ to fix some of the Java-caused errors in this chapter, which explains why I decided to repost it.

I don't have a clue as to how to fix the _problem_, so anything that seems odd about spelling, etc. is probably not my fault. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

14. _Dust Motes_

_Arise therefore!_

_And with the help of thy Spirit_

_Lift up thy soul:_

_Allow not thy soul to fall._

_For thy soul can be thy friend,_

_And thy soul can be thy enemy._

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

The village looked like the barest of specks from far away. Just another dot, joining others of its kind among the swirling sands; a darker grain in the midst of a reddish-gold sea. Nothing but a spot.

Appearances could be deceiving, though. Appearances were _always_ deceiving, whether intentionally or just out of habit. A fact taught to the students of the scrolls, though remembered and practiced by few.

What looked like a speck; what was scrawled on the crude hand-drawn map as a 'village', was anything but. It was a city. A sprawling metropolis, like black mold creeping across the sand, it was home to all walks of life and some walks below it—from the shifty namelesses in shacks of cardboard huddling at the outskirts, to the jaded oil-sheikhs resting in brick palaces in the heart. One thing was clear to all who stepped foot inside its boundaries: _this was no 'village'_.

"Holy shit!" Naruto made no attempt to hide the expected feeling of awe. He gaped up at the skyscrapers that lined every street, creating a giant maze. "This place is ten times bigger than Konoha ever was!"

Refusing to be astounded by the vastness of it all, Sasuke grunted and shrugged at nobody in particular. No gaping at the towering buildings ahead of him, no straining to hear the exotic tongues babbled on the street corners. Not so much as a sideways glance at the thousands of pathetic mortals that stalked around him.

For he was Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke. And Uchiha Sasuke was never 'in awe' of _anything_. _Everything_ was in awe of _him_.

"Ummm...err..." Naruto stuttered, struggling to put his thoughts into words. "How exactly are we going to find the bad guys in a gigantic place like this? And _don't_ tell me we're gonna have to run around the whole city like we usually do"

The silver-haired teacher gave the boy a resigned look and said, "All right. If it helps you, I _won't_ tell you that. But that's what you'll have to do." Even Sasuke couldn't resist a groan. It might take days to comb the entire city for one group of kidnappers. There wasn't even any information as to where their hideout might be.

_This is impossible!_

That little voice again. Sasuke growled at it to shut up. All the voices around him were getting on his nerves as it was. _Nothing_ was impossible for the Uchiha.

"**Impossible" doesn't even _exist_ in my vocabulary! **He snarled at himself. How he despised the word, right this second, when it was used to describe himself.

_Yet he used it nearly every day..._

"But Kakashi! It's going to take _years_ to find those freaks if we gotta do that!" Naruto whined, his enthusiasm for the mission growing stale.

"I'd suggest you get started, then," Kakashi replied coolly. The blonde-haired boy looked at him with a pleading expression that was almost comical, but the teacher just shook his head. And without another word, he disappeared in a swirl of smoke, leaving his three students alone on the busy street.

Muttering under his breath about how he always had to do the dirty work, Naruto glanced around. Where was the most likely place for a bunch of no-good, low-down dirty kidnappers to hide? He ducked onto a random side-street.

Bad guys, _real_ bad guys that were gangsters and not ninja, usually holed up in bars or old warehouses, right? Make that _whorehouses._

What was more important, Naruto had spotted a ramen shop at the end of the narrow lane. Yes, that was _definitely_ more important.

Though he would never have admitted it out loud, he was beginning to take a liking to this enormous citadel that swarmed with people. Here was a place where the streets would never be dark and silent the way Konoha's were, where there was a light in every window—even if it _was_ just a neon one. Here, he could let the noise flock over him; let it drag him away from the horrors that prowled the quiet.

Sasuke pretended to scan his surroundings carefully, a cool, collected look plastered on his face. Inside, though, he was roiling. Seething. Seething at the incessant sound that enveloped him; threatening to pull him under. The people. The noise. Goddammit, he was going crazy. He couldn't think. None of them noticed him as they rushed by, nobody stopped to comment on his _obvious_ good looks the way they did in Konoha. Nobody even _saw_ him.

He took to the rooftops.

Sakura stood still in the middle of the street, letting all the voices wash over her. She felt for the sensation—the aura of a nervous child, separated from her parents.

This scroll required the user to be absolutely devoid of emotion. One's own feelings would block out the others one sensed for. She cleared her mind of everything, anything, and focused on the multitude that thronged around her.

Kakashi materialized in front of his pink-haired student, a slightly annoyed look on whatever could be seen of his face. "What do you think you're doing, Sakura?" he asked, a bit incredulously, regretting the words as he spoke them.

The flash of color. Sakura had been waiting for it, but it came quicker than she'd expected. Anxious, plaintive baby-blue, twined with gray worry. That was the one.

Kakashi waited for her to say something. Say anything. She'd done stuff like this on other missions—just stood there while the boys ran off to find the scroll, or whatever it was they were in search of. Then, when he'd asked why she was doing that, doing nothing, he would get a lecture on how a _real_ woman lets her men do the dirty work and that she was the brains, not the brawn.

Lifting her head slowly to meet her teacher's eyes, the pink-haired girl shot out an indifferent glare with lime-colored eyes. The green flashed.

Kakashi had prepared himself for the speech. He had prepared himself for the breakdown. He had not prepared himself for what Sakura did.

**--Mind your own business.--**

But before it could register in Kakashi's mind, the green disappeared. Without a word, without a sound, Sakura turned back to her work. Whatever it was that she was doing...

Reaching into the ripped shoulder-bag, Sakura tore a corner of papyrus from a scroll. _He shouldn't have interrupted me, _she thought languidly.

As soon as Kakashi vanished once again, Sakura let the captive scrap of paper free, allowing her mind to follow the white speck as it blurred with so many others, floating towards an unseen destination of blue.

* * *

Once again, sorry for any confusion this chapter may have caused. I just felt compelled to fix whatever errors I could! (bows rather sheepishly) I'm not a computer expert, so please bear with me on this one...


	15. Shortness of the Long Road

I'm trying to pick up the pace in updating, but I still look back wistfully upon the days when I could post every other day (sigh)...but school _is_ rather demanding...

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

15. _Shortness of the Long Road_

_Whence this lifeless dejection,_

_Arjuna, in this hour, the hour of trial?_

_Strong men know not despair,_

_Arjuna, for this wins neither heaven nor earth._

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

Sasuke leapt the gap between slate-shingled rooftops, casting a careless eye down at the dark alley below him. He'd been searching for at least an hour now, maybe more.

At least it was quiet up here.

_You know you're never going to find the child like this,_ the little voices babbled in his head. _The kidnappers won't be hiding out on some roof._

The voices were reprimanding. Like he'd done something wrong?

But he had to admit... the voices were right. The voices were _always_ right. They always had been.

**No**. He _didn't_ have to admit that. Sasuke erased the thought with a vengeance.

**Correction**, he informed the voices, not that they were listening. **_I_ am right. I am _always_ right. I always have been...and I always will be.**

Yes. That, of all things, sounded correct.

At least it was quiet up here...

_Yeah right._

* * *

"Hey! Come back here, you thieving little brat! You didn't pay!" A blonde-haired boy ducked out of a restaurant just in time to escape the sight of an angry chef wielding a frying pan. The man glanced around and went back inside his shop, muttering under his breath. 

With a sigh of relief, Naruto hoisted himself out of his trash-can hiding place. The people in this city weren't necessarily the friendliest lot, but the ramen sure was good. So good, in fact, that you almost didn't notice the iron bars on the windows, or the bullet-proof glass.

This was a life that he could get used to...

* * *

Three men surrounded the pink-haired girl in the alley. 

"Ohohoho...what do we have here? Whaddaya say, boys... how 'bout we take this girlie home for the night," the tallest of the group jeered, fingering his dark moustache.

"Why so quiet, sweetie? Just gonna accept your fate? Don't worry...I like that kinda chick...heh..." One of the men, with a mop of greasy, sandy hair, lifted the girl's chin and stared into her eyes.

Jade eyes.

The green flashed.

"Huh? Gomi? Are you alright, man?" The sandy-haired one was frozen stiff, his face a still-life spasm of horror.

"What did ya do to Gomi, bitch?!"

"Whatever she did, she's gonna pay, big time. Right, bro?"

The two circled their prey, focusing on the emerald lights in the shadow. Not their first mistake...but it _was_ their last.

In two different minds, the green flashed and pulsed. Sakura vanished in a blur of speed, leaving the three twitching bodies in the darkness of the alley.

_That will do for a warm-up, I guess..._

A few feet ahead, an innocently pale scrap of papyrus drifted with the wind.

* * *

I hope this wasn't too awkward a chapter...I just felt this unreal obligation to post something. 

"Deity-of-death"-sama...you really do flatter me (bows) Back when I was on vacation, I was able to update practically every day. My muse isn't really that stubborn...well, it is, but in a different way... that's what forces me to write these chapters when I should be listening to a science lecture! It's odd that my inspirations are so persistent...

To "dark-anime-junkie"-sama: Where do I get the poetic quotes? Well...I have these two books. One of 'em is The Bhagavad Gita; the other is Beowulf. Both are written by that infamous 'anonymous'. They have one other main similarity as well...care to guess what that is?

Why do I use these two poems? Well, that's kinda related to that similarity I was talking about...heh. (n.n;;)

Please remember to review if you have ideas or suggestions!


	16. Ruin of Reason

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

16. _Ruin of Reason_

_There is no wisdom for a man _

_Without harmony, _

_And without harmony there is no contemplation._

_Without contemplation there cannot be peace,_

_And without peace can there be joy?_

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

Sakura felt the air shift behind her. The molecules trembled slightly, fell still, then trembled again. She sensed the eyes, too, the invisible eyes that were hidden so well, yet so openly. The aura, though...that pitying, patronizing, over-protective aura... it was familiar.

_Kakashi._

The pink-haired girl growled mentally. _Why is he following me? Is it that he doesn't trust my work? Or...is it that he thinks I'm just too weak to go off on my own?_

The inward frown twisted into a smirk. Nothing wrong with him thinking that...for the time being, at least.

Adding a burst of extra speed, Sakura made a hairpin turn onto a deserted sidestreet and felt her teacher's energy brush past her unknowingly, and grow fainter with distance, until at last it had faded into just another dim flicker among a crowd of a million others.

* * *

When Kakashi returned to the team's meeting place, he found that Naruto and Sasuke were already there. Sakura, however...Sakura was nowhere in sight. An unwelcome chill wormed its way through his consciousness. Did this confirm his fears? 

Naruto ran up to the silver-haired teacher, prepared to belt a hearty 'You're late!', out of habit. The words died on his tongue when Kakashi held up a hand and shook his head silently. Urgently. In a very un-Kakashi-like way.

Sasuke looked at the instructor, questioningly annoyed. "Well, what is it?" he asked in a gruff tone.

Surprisingly, the answer came without hesitation.

"It's Sakura."

Suddenly Naruto's words found new life. "What happened to my Sakura-chan, Kakashi? If _anything_ happened to her, you can count on kissing your ass good-bye!" The blonde-haired boy was trembling. Whether in fear or in anger, though, was anyone's guess.

"Calm down, Naruto. Just _calm down_," Kakashi insisted, trying to keep his voice steady by propping it up on stakes of authority. He was counted on to be the leader; the strong one in the group; the expert. Why, then, did he feel so helpless?

"So, what about Sakura?" Sasuke queried impatiently. He was tired, hungry, and sweaty from spending the whole day searching high and low for some spoiled brat.

Well, he'd _really_ only been searching high...and he hadn't _really_ been searching...and he _really_ hadn't spent all day...but who needed to know that? Yes, he was admitting it to himself...but that was only for the sake of the voices.It was bad enough that he had to listen to their stupid so-called 'teacher' gripe about their stupid so-called 'teammate'...he didn't need another useless conversation going on in his head at the same time.

"You see...I was following Sakura. It seemed like she knew where she was going. And then...I lost her. Her aura just vanished."

Naruto gasped almost theatrically. "How can you have let something like that happen to my Sakura-chan?!! Tell me what happened!"

Sasuke groaned. _Idiot girl probably just ducked into a beauty salon for her daily facial or whatever it's called..._

"Well...I really don't _know_ how, Naruto. All I know is, her aura was there one minute, then it was gone. By the time I was able to stop and look around, I couldn't detect her anymore. Which leads me to believe that whatever gang kidnapped the Otsubo child has also captured Sakura." Kakashi braced himself for another outburst.

"W-why?" Naruto's voice was a whisper, a gasp, warbling like the cry of a sickly bird. "Why our Sakura-chan?"

Kakashi knew the answer to _that_ one all too well.

"They're most likely holding her as 'spare bait'," he said, straining all the emotion from his voice. 'Spare bait'...it killed him to use such an inhuman term. But how else could he put it?

"We've gotta go find her!" Now Naruto's voice had morphed into the roar of a lion. A wounded lion who is being forced to watch his pride die right under his nose. A voice sealed into a heroic, ready-for-anything tone.

_How can those kidnappers be so cruel...first, an innocent little child; now, my innocent little Sakura-chan... _They had to help her, had to get her out of this mess...

"**I don't think so**."

* * *

Naruto brought his reverie to a grinding halt and turned, as did Kakashi, to face the source of the voice. 

Sasuke stared blankly into his teammates' astonished faces.

"What did you say?" Naruto's words sounded like the barest rustle of leaves. He couldn't bring himself to yell.

"I _said_, I don't think so," the raven-haired boy repeated, accenting his haughty tone with a matching smirk. "I'm tired of our enemies using our weakest link against us."

Kakashi started to say something, but Sasuke brushed the teacher's stammers aside, his words gathering speed.

"Every single mission we go on, she does absolutely nothing. And, what's more, she _is_ absolutely nothing. Nothing but a burden that we all have to bear. Don't say it's not true, Naruto, because you know that it is. Same thing to you, Kakashi-_sensei_," he sneered, tossing a heap of sarcastic emphasis on 'sensei'. "At any rate, the kidnappers expect that we'll go after our dear, precious, long-lost goddamn teammate. They expect us to take the bait. So that's exactly what we _shouldn't_ do."

Naruto gaped at the Uchiha. All the words he'd ever known fled screaming from his mind.

"You-you're...you're insane..." he finally managed, in a tone that seemed a lost crossbreed of fear, anger, and disbelief.

Sasuke looked at the blonde-haired boy, an unreadable expression on his face. He gave a self-satisfied snort.

"That may be, Naruto. That may very well be."

* * *

Longer chapter today—Sasuke finally snaps! I've decided to refrain from putting notes at the beginning of chapters, so that people who don't read Author's Notes won't have to do so much scrolling. 

To "deity of death"-sama: _Of course_ you can draw a fan-art for this fic. Thanks for asking, though. (bows)

I know it's kind of hard to think when you have school nipping at your heels (or biting them off, in my case), but, if you can, please review with any comments/suggestions/etc. It really helps!


	17. Wandering

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

17. _Wandering _

_There are men who have no vision,_

_And yet they speak many words..._

_The restless violence of the senses..._

_Carries away the mind of even a wise man..._

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

The letters were engraved in soulless black on a bronze-plated plaque that gleamed in the yellow rays of the streetlights. The plaque stood out surreally against the stately brick of the towering building. Large enough for a passerby to see, and yet so easy to walk by unnoticed.

**.:Sand:.  
****Museum  
****of  
****National and Ninja  
****History**

Slate steps built for little giants slanted up to a large pair of wooden doors. Windows peered down at the empty sidewalk below like so many lightless slits, black that corrupted the honorable dark-red walls.

At the base of the first storm-gray step, the tiniest scrap of papyrus fluttered leisurely, then sank to the ground, ignoring the windless night. It shimmered scarlet as it lay in the building's shadow, reflecting the garish light of the neon "CLOSED" sign on the museum door.

* * *

"Like it or not, Sasuke-bastard, you're coming with us! We _have_ to find Sakura-chan before those guys do something to her!" Naruto was hanging by his last nerves. He could practically hear the ticking of the time bomb, the imaginary time bomb in his mind that foretold his teammate's doom. 

The noise was getting louder, louder with every passing second...

Sasuke looked almost like a pouting child, leaning against the conveniently-placed streetlight. "I said, no. You heard my reasons. It's a waste of time." His voice was flat, bordering on a sneer. Like he was talking about whether or not he should run down to the store, instead of whether or not he should save his teammate's life.

Kakashi glanced anxiously (dare he say, 'nervously'?) at the two boys. They had been arguing like this for almost five full minutes, ever since Sasuke had made his speech about...about _that_...

...he couldn't, wouldn't bring himself to even _think_ it. To repeat in his mind what his student had said about the girl.

Because he knew, all along, that Sasuke was speaking the truth.

_Or, rather, _his_ truth..._

However, truth or not, Sakura was in danger. The more time that was spent arguing, the more time that the kidnappers would have to plan, and plot, and torture. _Torture..._ Kakashi willed the thought to leave.

"However the kidnappers plan to use Sakura against us, we must rescue her," he finally spoke. Naruto gave the teacher a grateful look; sincerely grateful. Then the look was gone, and a comically heroic one rushed in to replace it.

"See? Our _teacher_ says so himself. So let's go!" Without waiting for another word from his teammates, Naruto raced around a corner. Kakashi sighed and looked at his one remaining student. Sasuke only glared in reply.

_Maybe he'll reconsider if I give him time to think alone, _the silver-haired instructor pondered. And alone the Uchiha soon was, as Kakashi quickly dematerialized in a breath of mist.

The raven-haired boy watched as his quote-unquote 'teacher' faded away into shadow. **What do they expect me to do?! **he yelled in his head, pleased to feel the hated voices cower in fear. **Just sit around here and _wait_ for them to get their asses kicked?!** The tables had turned, he noted offhandedly.

_This will be an excellent time to show them all just how strong and powerful you really are..._

Sasuke was startled to hear the new voice, then soothed by it. This voice was a different voice. A better one.

One that he completely agreed with...

* * *

A pink-haired figure stood at the top of the gigantic slate staircase. She tapped the door handle ever so lightly. 

_Locked_.

Her face was blank as she made a quick seal with her hands. It had been the first jutsu she'd learned from her scrolls—the mental lock-pick. And it had been the first jutsu she'd used; time and time again, when Keiko was in a bad mood and decided to lock her out of the house.

That had happened a lot.

As if by magic (and what a cliché _that_ was), the door swung open silently. Sakura stepped inside.

* * *

I hope that wasn't too much of a cliffhanger... I'm trying to write longer chapters, but my life has just gotten a whole lot more hectic recently! 

It started with my English teacher giving my class a week-long assignment to read a certain book. I finished it on the same day she assigned it, and handed it back in while telling her that. Suddenly I'm deluged in projects. She wants me to publish something, she wants me to do this and do that. Meanwhile, I'm watching her with a terrified expression on my face.

That's the worst thing about being a so-called 'genius' (note the sarcasm): everyone thinks that you're actually _willing_ to work like a slave on meaningless essays and such. I probably shouldn't have said anything (sigh)...now I have even less time to do what I want. (e.g. write fanfiction)

To "Angel-Rosz"-san: I have a million ideas for how to torture these characters...playing with the minds of our friends from Naruto gets to be both a habit and a hobby... (evil laugh)

I have an idea about how to make Sakura gain power but gain problems at the same time...not sure if I should use it though. At any rate, please try to review!


	18. Not the One

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Caution: Awkward chapter! _Very_ awkward chapter!

Warning: Gory/bloody. (somewhat)

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

18. _Not the One_

_Let not the wise disturb_

_The mind of the unwise..._

_And do thy duty...rather than_

_Another's..._

_To die in one's duty is life:_

_To live in another's is death._

_-The Bhagavad Gita_

The building was silent. Silent and dark. The silence of a basic genin-level sound-proofing jutsu. The pink-haired girl closed her eyes—they were useless now, anyway.

A gray glow in that corner. Gray, color of wisdom, color of scrolls. She crept over to it, letting herself blend with the dark; drawing in her aura until she was just another statue in the dusty room. A smashed display case surrounded by a heap of scrolls tossed aside.

The placard dangling rakishly from the exhibit told, in the flowery language museums seem to prefer, that the glass case laying in shards on the floor had held the katana of a famous swordsman.

Sakura couldn't resist a smirk. _Typical bandit-rogues._ That was what they wanted—good, solid, earthly weapons. Weapons that they could hold, grasp, test the keen blade on the nearest living thing. That was what they _all_ wanted. And the scrolls were just thrown to the side without a glance, like so much rubbish...

A stealthy hand scooped up the rolls of papyrus and slipped them with care into the depths of a ragged shoulder bag.

_One man's trash is another's treasure..._

The saying had never made more sense than it did to her.

* * *

Naruto raced through the alley, vaulting trash cans and sending the city rats scurrying. "Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! Where are you?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. 

The time-bomb's ticking reverberated in his ears like a cynical heartbeat. He knew it wouldn't stop, the ticking wouldn't cease, until the bomb had exploded. And then it would be too late...

He could smell his own fear.

"_Sakura-chan_!!!" His voice rose to a desperate, high-pitched wail, making dogs he couldn't see howl madly in reply. How dare they...thinking they could sympathize with his loss...

"Shut up about yer girlfriend, stupid brat!" The old woman, hair wrapped in curlers like a shiny mutant wig, slammed the window shut, not before chucking a vase in Naruto's direction.

"Yikes!" the boy yelped, leaping to the side as the porcelain shattered like a splash of white water. He let out a breath, a discouraged sigh.

The time-bomb mercilessly counted the seconds against his eardrums. It was getting louder, so loud, so loud he couldn't feel himself curl up instinctively in waiting.

But he did feel the blast.

* * *

A raven-haired boy crouched against a chimney. The soot-stained brick caught on the cloth of his shirt, right over the symbol he wore on his back. 

Surprisingly, he didn't feel the sting of the memories attached to that simple icon. But he was drunk on the voices; he could have set himself on fire and felt nothing until his death.

Oh, he liked this new voice, yes he did, he could listen to it all day without a negative word. Because this voice flattered him, praised him for the powers he had, and some that he didn't. This voice was his. His _friend_.

_Rescuing that idiot girl and the brat would be an excellent time to remind those wimps who call themselves 'ninjas' about the meaning of the term 'genius'..._it sneered in sinister encouragement. Sasuke said nothing, nodded enthusiastically like a child.

Suddenly, the world exploded into a blindingly bright flash of crimson. The red was all there was to see.

And then it was gone. Angry neon dots swarmed Sasuke's vision. He blinked them away and switched on his Sharingan eyes. Was that really an explosion of _chakra_? _Or something else...?_

He blinked again as he focused on the source of the energy. The voice whispered in his ear.

_This is the perfect time...the perfect time to play hero, the time to save the day..._

_

* * *

_

Blood coated the walls of the high-ceilinged room like a layer of bright paint. It was splashed over the rows of tan, vinyl-covered seats, pooling in the aisles and staining red carpets a deeper scarlet tinted with brown. It trickled down the sign that read "Museum Auditorium" in raised, gilded letters, covering the words in a cleanly messy way.

The room was decked with fragments of humans, in all types and sizes. Some stood out prominently like they had been arranged by a professional decorator; others followed the more subtle style, crunching underfoot like twigs in a forest. An arm dangled cheerfully from a balcony railing, a head rested serenely on the speaker's podium, staring at the world through bulging olive eyes.

All was silent, save for the delicate drip of blood...and that unnatural electric hum, echoed in the pulsing crimson light that hung like a residue in the air.

* * *

Three figures hurried up the stairs of the stately brick building. They stormed inside, hoping they weren't too late. Prepared to be attacked, to be ambushed, to be challenged by hordes of shinobi hiding in the shadows... 

The hall was dark and empty, except for a single ray of scarlet light that slithered from a half-open door. The sign on the wall above it read "Museum Auditorium" in bold black print. They threw it open, rushed through to their fate. Drew in a collective gasp at the sight that greeted their eyes.

* * *

Eeep...such a dreadfully awkward chapter...the next one will be awkward too. Guaranteed (bows apologetically). I don't want to make Sakura appear _too_ powerful, but don't worry—she's gonna have _plenty_ of problems. If you have any minor suggestions on how I could make this chapter less...I dunno, weird, then please tell me! I'm more than willing to rewrite this chapter if I could make it any better!

And thanks so much to all you guys who told of experiences with that breed of psychotic teacher. It helps to know I'm not the only one! At least it's not my math teacher who's doing this...math is most definitely my worst subject...(sigh) I started one of those C2 things...though I don't know what to do with it...does anyone have a clue as to what they are? Does anyone else have one?

I say this every chapter: Try to review! Maybe they should make that request a standard thing...y'know, like those annoying godforsaken disclaimers...


	19. A New Transparency

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Warning: Like I said before—awkward.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

19. _A New Transparency _

"_Other monsters crowded around me,_

_Continually attacking. I treated them politely, _

_Offering the edge of my razor-sharp sword._

_But the feast, I think, did not please them..._

_Thrashing there at the bottom of the sea..."_

_-Beowulf_

"Sakura-chan? Are you in here?" Naruto choked out, in a voice intended to be a shout but sounding closer to a gasp. A feeling of utter nausea gurgled somewhere deep in the pit of his stomach, as red swept his vision in waves. The room spun like the inside of a top.

Kakashi was uncomfortably silent, forcing his eyes to avoid the crimson spatters crawling across the walls, the ceiling, the floor that he stood on—

He'd seen blood like this before, but that didn't mean he liked it. He'd seen blood like this before, but that didn't mean he was used to it. And the nightmares, oh the nightmares...

Instead, he watched his students as intently as he could out of the corner of his eye, forcing himself into the comfort of scientific observation, pulling himself and his delicate soul away from the situation. It's not happening to you, it's just an experiment, think logically about what you would do if you were in the position shown...

Naruto, though making his usual brave attempt at being brave, was pale and trembling, Kakashi noted. He moved his arms and legs in jerky, robotic spasms, looking exactly as he should have, given the circumstances. But Sasuke...

The raven-haired Uchiha boy looked disconnected, disoriented, almost drunken. Sharingan eyes blankly stared at everything and nothing. Kakashi took a moment to ponder what was going through his student's mind, but dropped the thought. They still had a mission to accomplish.

With mechanical fluidity, Sasuke walked towards the small stage that commanded the room. He didn't notice the darker patches interrupting the sheen of the red velvet curtains, didn't feel the delightful squish of the carpet that flowed scarlet with every step. He was a prisoner of his own mind, and a willing one at that.

_Remember what I told you, you're the hero, you're the real man here, just look at those wimps, walk by them without a word, show them just how strong you are, come on..._

The words were repeated like a chant, a mantra, a charm to protect him from himself. And it was working.

At last, Sasuke saw what he'd been looking for. A vague aura, probably that of a young child, peering out from backstage. Mindless of the crust of crimson-brown that flaked onto his hands, he pulled open the heavy draperies.

A girl, pink hair barely visible from under the blood, sat still as a statue, tied to a chair. A smaller girl, her back to the other, was lashed to another chair bound and gagged.

Haruno Sakura.

Otsubo Motoko.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, regaining his normal voice. "Are you alright?" At the sound of the unfamiliar voice, the littler of the two began to struggle with her bonds, making muffled sounds. Kakashi quickly cut her loose and untied the gag and blindfold. A pair of watery brown eyes peered from a tear-stained, frightened face.

"Are you here to save me?" she sniffled, her body tense with fear.

"Yes, yes, you're safe now. Did those men try to hurt you?" Kakashi tried to force his nervous voice into something that would pass for a kindly tone.

"Oh, no! Not at all!" Dropping her defensive posture, Motoko crossed her arms and shook her head firmly. "They were talking about money, though. And hurting my daddy and my mommy, too."

"They were bad, bad men," she added after a frowning pause.

"Okay...we're glad that you're all right." The silver-haired teacher offered a strained chuckle that he hoped would sound genuine. Meanwhile, Motoko was walking over to where Sakura sat, still tied up. The little girl tugged at the limp hem of the blood-drenched ninja dress.

"Mister, I don't know what your name is, but are you going to let the other girl go, too? I dunno how she got here or when she got tied up, but all the bad men went bye-bye so we can let her out now."

Kakashi gave himself a mental slap. How could he have been so stupid? He'd been so worried about what a four-year-old would think of him, he had forgotten all about their teammate. As quickly as he could, he slit the bonds and waited for her to jump into his arms, tears streaming in torrents down her cheeks.

The pink-haired girl didn't stir.

"Hey, missy...you can get up now! Wake-up! Wake-up!" Motoko climbed onto Sakura's lap and waved a chubby hand in front of the girl's vacant face. To Kakashi, she said, "She's not waking up, mister. I hope they didn't hurt her..."

Naruto's head had been swimming with the sight of the blood; the smell, the sound, the metallic taste in the air...but he heard the child's words. It forced him back to reality.

"Huh?! Sakura-chan's not waking up?" His tone was sardine-packed with disbelief of all colors. And new possibilities opened up their doors to reveal all-too-gruesome depictions of what might happen next...

* * *

I know this wasn't really the longest chapter I could have written, but I am currently being barraged with tests. I have the oddest intuition that I will hate science class this year... 

To Maya Amano-sama: Your teachers sound so cruel...(shudder) I'm in junior high and hating every minute of it...the teachers either treat us like retards or slaves. (I prefer the 'retard' illusion, mainly because I don't have to do much work then!)

Try to review--tell me if something seems out of place here, because this chapter seems more awkward than the previous one...or maybe it's just me.


	20. Dressed for Burning

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

20. _Dressed for Burning_

_But the thief had not come to steal; he stole_

_And roused the dragon, not from desire_

_But need. He was someone's slave..._

_Had run from all men's sight,_

_But with no place to hide; then he found the hidden..._

_-Beowulf_

A pink-haired girl lay on the stainless steel bed in Konohagakure Public Hospital, Shinobi Ward, Room 106. Clusters of computer screens perched on reed-like stands, monitoring vital signs for patient A24J67. A lumpy, blood-speckled shoulder-bag rested on an aluminum folding chair nearby.

"The girl has not changed since you left her, sir. Pulse normal, brainwaves normal, chakra level at almost zero. So far as we know, she remains unconscious." A nurse spoke in a low, business-like monotone as a lean shoestring of a man walked into the room. His spotless white lab coat, the universal garb of doctors that prefer to keep their clothes and selves away from the operating table, hung on him like rags on a poorly-stuffed scarecrow.

The doctor let out a disappointed sigh. Another nurse hurried in after him.

"Visitors for A24J67, sir," she said, giving a curt little bow.

"Bring them in." The doctor glanced at the motionless figure on the hospital bed. Barely alive...yet still so...

This was a strange case...that was the only thing he knew for sure.

As soon as the door creaked open, a boy in a garishly orange outfit bounded inside. Skidding maniacally across the linoleum tile, he leaned over the rail of the hospital bed.

"Sakura-chaaan! How ya feelin'?" He stared into the girl's face. Blank, unseeing green eyes stared right back, looking through him at the bland whitewashed wall. Naruto blinked and forced himself to look away. His Sakura-chan looked so wide-awake, and at the same time, so...

Meanwhile, a tall silver-haired ninja had stepped into the room and was talking to the doctor.

"Any improvements?" he asked worriedly, eyes shifting around the room.

The doctor looked him up and down. Sizing him up, as it were. The man had the air of an anxious father, though the paperwork clearly stated that he was her instructor and no more. Hopefully, whoever he was, he could handle news...both good and bad.

"I don't know what to think about this..." The doctor decided to talk in a hushed voice, for the sake of doubt, and other things as well. "I've just got to tell you that this is one of the oddest cases I've ever seen in my entire experience here." Noting a subtle change in the man's expression, he began to talk more quickly.

"What I'm saying is, the girl is obviously alive—her heart is beating and she's breathing, and she isn't in a coma, either. However, we can't tell if she is conscious or not."

"And it's been like this for the two days she's been here? Don't you have machines you can use for judging that type of thing?"

"My point exactly!" The doctor's volume rose slightly, then retreated to its almost conspiratorial whisper. "That's what I'm trying to tell you—we've got some of the most high-level equipment available right in this hospital, and we've tried every possible method...but none of the tests, none of the screenings, none of the imaging we ran on her came up with more than a vague outline of her body. None of them! These are tests that should show the entire chakra-coil system! We've used them on thousands of patients in much worse shape without the slightest glitch!"

Kakashi's face rippled in uneasiness, before returning to a placid mask. "What of her physical examination?" he asked, quelling all emotion from his words. "Does she have any serious injuries?" He prayed that the doctor would say something. He prayed that the doctor would say nothing.

His prayer was answered.

"No...no _serious_ injuries..." Kakashi winced at the painstaking inflection of that word. "She is, as a matter of fact, in perfect physical shape, except for a long cut down the middle of her back." Not wanting to wait for the teacher's reaction, the doctor talked faster. "It's not serious enough to be cause for alarm; the cut is only superficial. Barely any blood loss...probably would have caused intense pain, but that's about it." He paused once again.

"The weird thing is...our forensics expert took a look at the cut, just for kicks, and he says it seems to have been self-inflicted. You said her hands had been tied around her back, didn't you? Well, such a wound could only have been made by someone holding a kunai in their hands, behind their back."

The silver-haired instructor looked vaguely puzzled. _Self-inflicted...?_ He shook away the thought. It was just the speculation of some rookie foren-something-or-other specialist. Probably of no importance.

"When will she be ready to return home?" he questioned, his voice empty of hidden implications.

The doctor looked at him. Poorly masked pity clouded his face; that 'you poor s-o-b' look that grown men will cast at one who appears to have a worse lot than they. Kakashi bristled slightly but remained silent.

"You can take her home today."

* * *

Yay! The 20th chapter is here! I'm sorry it's so short, but, as you know, I've been slightly 'out of it'. Remember to point out anything that looks or sounds glaringly awkward! 

I'm glad that I made so many people 'think about' the last chapter! With school and all, I know how hard it is to make someone think willingly...(which is an oxymoron, now that I consider it)

To 'dobyuk princess'-sama: Thanks for the compliment! (bows)

To 'xx-Tsumi-chan-xx': You know...I was going to have the scene exactly as you said...but that would have been too cliché...and too probable. I mean, I probably would have had fun describing it, but it would have been rather predictable of me...

Again, I like how many reviewers are speculating about what happened. Some of you are not that far off!


	21. To Walk the Line

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

21. _To Walk the Line_

_When the wind stirs_

_And storms, waves splash toward the sky,_

_As dark as the air, as black as the rain..._

_Seek it, if you dare! Save us,_

_Once more, and again twisted gold,_

_Heaped-up ancient treasure, will reward you..._

_-Beowulf_

"I don't care what you think about her, Sasuke-bastard—you're coming with me to go check on Sakura-chan! She's been alone in her empty house for nearly three days!" Naruto was practically dragging his teammate down the sidewalk. "Say all the nasty mean things you want, but Sakura-chan is still a much better—and much nicer—person than you!"

_Oh, really? Tell me more..._

Sasuke glared at Naruto as he was clumsily pulled through the streets, but said nothing. This was such a waste of time. The girl herself was a waste of time; a waste of space, too, and oxygen. She was the useless one, and she'd only proved that by letting a group of amateurs, not even ninjas, just grab her and tie her up.

She was the worthless one, the type of child that, in years before, would have been left out in the wilderness to starve so its powerless blood would not corrupt the family's. Condemned to death because of its own weakness. Those were the good old days.

No matter that it could be trained to overcome that weakness. No matter that it might have other strengths not yet noticed, that would be gradually eliminated from the bloodline as the practice grew more common.

And the Uchiha clan, more than any other, stood by these ideals with the utmost in misplaced pride. Those who were not born strong were not meant to be born at all. Oh yes, _those_ were the good old days.

_You know..._ Without warning, the voice interrupted his tirade. Sasuke perked up immediately, waiting to hear what it had to say.

_You know how weak and pitiful she is...acting all high and mighty to you, but can't even fight for her own when she's attacked by a gang of stupid half-wit bandits. This just might be your chance to show her what it really means to be an Uchiha...what it means to be the product of a pure ninja bloodline..._

An unnatural smile flickered on Sasuke's face for the slightest second, then was hurriedly pulled inward and hidden away.

Yes, yes, and yes, he told the voice. Even if he could never have his revenge on his brother, he could allow himself this...

_Right on!_ The voice applauded, sounding like a cross between a cheerleader and the grim reaper. Sasuke would have erased the thought had it occurred to him, but the voice was easily filling Sakura's place as his number one supporter, number one fan.

According to the voice, he was never wrong.

According to the voice, he was always right.

According to the voice, he was many things, all of them good, all of them a pleasant comfort to a mind that was slowly being chipped away...

Naruto cast a quick glance over at Sasuke. The boy could have sworn he'd seen a smile, or something pretty damn close to one, dance across the Uchiha's stormy countenance. And then it was gone, as if it had never existed. He shook his head vigorously, deciding to stop by the ramen shop on his way home so he could eat and clear his mind.

Before Sasuke knew it, Naruto was towing him up to the entrance of a small, run-down shack of a house. Ignoring the peeling paint, the blonde-haired boy pounded insistently on the door, pushed the cracked, faded plastic doorbell only to find that it was broken. Finally, he tried the doorknob. It turned with a rusty scrape of metal, and they were inside.

The room they had entered was bare, drab, empty of all furnishings save for a low table and two huge stone pillars that stood sentry-like on either side of the doorway. The walls were covered in scribblings, though none of the characters were recognizable. Dark brownish-red patches stood out prominently against the faded tan of the wooden-paneled floor. A metallic scent laced the air.

"Sakura-chan! Are you here?" Naruto called out, awaiting an answer from somewhere deep within the silence. He got one, of course; a chorus of "here"s that bounced off the walls and spun around his head.

But it was only an echo.

"I guess Sakura-chan isn't here. Let's go." The blonde-haired boy sighed in defeat as the two headed out of the hauntingly colorless room, out of the atmosphere tinged with the taste of blood. Away from the house with the peeling paint and the broken doorbell.

"I'm going to Ichiraku. Do you wanna come?"

It was creepy, the way Naruto's voice could spring back to its cheerful lilt so quickly, without a pause. Barely listening, Sasuke shook his head 'no'. There were other conversations that he was more interested in hearing. Like the ones he was having with himself.

Without a word, the Uchiha watched as his teammate sprinted to the ramen shop.

Without a word, he turned his back and took the path leading into the forest.

* * *

Judging from my reviews, it seems that I've got more new readers! Yay! 

Ashley-sama: Oh, my god. Your prediction is so close...what are you, psychic?

For all the rest of the readers who are still puzzling over the chapter 19 incident, there should be an explanation (well, something that will pass for an explanation) soon.

And remember to review if you can! Suggestions, comments, any old thing!


	22. Pathway to Revenge

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

22. _Pathway of Revenge_

_Down. The Danes gave up, left..._

_And went home..._

_The Geats stayed, sat sadly, watching,_

_Imagining they saw their lord..._

_-Beowulf_

Sasuke loved the woods.

The emerald foliage was far from silent, yet devoid of the drone of human voices. It was filled to the brim with shadows, nestling comfortably in the hollows of the trees and the spaces where the sun was obscured by leaves. The scent of green wafted through the atmosphere like a delicate perfume, so crisp and fresh it made him want to drink the air.

As birds twittered in lively tones, Sasuke was having his own conversation with himself...

* * *

Naruto slurped his ramen loudly, sucking up the last noodle with a spray of broth, and slammed the bowl down on the scarred linoleum counter with a decided clunk. His unused chopsticks, and several other diners, jumped at the impact. 

"More please!" he shouted eagerly. One of the cooks groaned in pretended agony and smiled at the boy.

Though none of them would ever admit it, the employees at Ichiraku Ramen Shop had taken a half-hearted liking to the rambunctious fox-child. All of them had lost family and friends to the demon, but somewhere down the line they all had agreed that it was pointless to hold a grudge against its vessel, that which was keeping them safe from further harm. Naruto's occasional antics were tolerated, if not enjoyed, by most of the staff.

As the blonde-haired boy waited for his next helping of noodles (was it the fifth bowl he'd had today, or the sixth?), his thoughts wandered nonchalantly over to his cherry-blossom teammate. He wondered where she could have gone, but this troubled him for no more than a second. She was probably out shopping, Naruto figured, or asleep. In a really, _really_ deep sleep.

_I mean, seriously,_ he reminded himself. _Who on earth would want to be alone for the sake of being alone? How could anyone want that?_ The boy shivered, mentally urging the chef to hurry up with the ramen. _How could anyone ever want to be alone, after going through something like that..._

...the blood...it—

A clinking of glass cut through the heavy layers of his consciousness as cleanly as butter, bringing him back to the surface. The bowl of steaming-hot noodles rested benignly in front of him. Grateful for the interruption, Naruto grabbed the scorching porcelain with both hands like a man possessed, drowning his worries in miso-flavored oblivion.

* * *

Sasuke hated the woods. 

The leaves rustled with the sinister essence of a thousand voices, tittering maliciously, watching him from countless shifty jade eyes.

_Green_... he stilled an involuntary shudder. What was so bad about the color green? What was so bad? What?

His mind pleaded the fifth.

The woods were filled with threatening shadows, surrounding him, creeping stealthily behind him, closing in on him and ready for the kill. A pale, deathly-green aroma spiked the air, smothering, suffocating, drowning. Birds screamed their mockeries of warning through the trees, promising a quick end to the unwary and the unwise.

And still he kept walking, off the path, following the spaces between the light, striding with an ersatz smile through the shadows, radiating false self-confidence to make the demons he couldn't see back away into their hidey-holes. And the voice led him on, chattering nonstop, suggesting all manners of devious torments to plague the hated pink-haired witch.

So absorbed was he in his listening, he didn't notice how far off the trail he was going. Nor did he notice the fact that a glowing, blood-red residue was hanging ominously in the air...

* * *

Amazing! 200 reviews! I can't believe it! (faints) Thank you all for being such dedicated reviewers and readers! At the end of the story, I'll probably have a listing of everyone who reviewed. (don't know how I'll do it though) Again, thank you! 

Sorry for the long wait and short update...I'm rather stressed and my writing suffers (bows sheepishly) You can pretty much guess what's going to happen in the next chapter...or can you? I'm starting to get a better idea about where this is going; it may not show, though. It's only a general idea, so I'm relying on reviews to 'flesh out' the story, as they say.


	23. Day at a Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

23. _Day at a Time_

"_And then pride grows in his heart, planted_

_Quietly but flourishing. And while the keeper of his soul_

_Sleeps on, while conscience rests and the world_

_Turns faster a murderer creeps closer..._

_He's helpless."_

_-Beowulf_

A rumble, low and barely noticeable, reverberated softly through the trees. The raven-haired boy felt the ground shiver delicately under his feet, but then it was gone.

It was nothing, he told himself. Probably just some explosion or something. Not a monster. Monsters don't exist. They never have and never will. Whatever it was, it was nothing. He moved on.

The leaves rustled nervously among themselves, but made no comment.

* * *

Sakura smiled wanly at her handiwork. Three huge trees lay prone in a clearing, covering the gaping holes that had once held wide webs of lace-like roots. Clumps of black dirt rained down, like a black snow mixed with the essence of neon-red. It was beautiful, truly beautiful. 

In a morbid, macabre sort of way.

The pink-haired girl pulled the kunai out of her hand ever so gently, watching the single rivulet of blood spiral like a manic thread around her wrist. It beaded brightly as if of spun glass, and then the bead chipped off, making the slightest spot on the earth below. After three days, she was finally getting the hang of this.

With a sigh devoid of either exhaustion or satisfaction, she leaned up against a towering oak tree. It was hard to believe that this _thing_ was a plant, that it was ever a little seedling huddled under the ground, that there was a time when it could have been flattened; its insignificant unthinking life terminated in a split second. And now it was _this_, this monster that had morphed to skyscraping proportions. A giant among its peers.

Some difference that made.

Under her throbbing hand, a small crack formed between the ridges of the bark. It widened, deepened into a yawning hole. Sakura leapt away as the majestic giant split in two, revealing the moist black-brown hollow of a rotten core.

Maybe she _did_ need to practice some more.

It was odd, she thought, how so many of the techniques worshipped by modern ninjas involved blood. Needed blood to 'work'; though half-rate as they were, a gallon of the red wouldn't make a difference. To require something so unwieldy, so messy, for a jutsu...it was an inconvenience. Or maybe more.

The scrolls knew that blood was not a necessity. A shinobi who had to rely solely on the physical realm was not fit to be called anything more than an amateur. So why was it so popular now? Could an entire nation forget things this quickly? The blood had _never_ been a necessity. Why was it used? Was it for intimidation? Bluffing? To put on a show for the enemy; to give an illusion of staidness and stoicism?

Yes, she decided. That was it. Surprisingly, the bluffs seemed to work. Maybe, for some, it was worth the sacrifice. Most likely it wasn't.

Sakura cast a glance over to the twin halves of tree that sat silently nearby, frowning in disgust.

She really had to work on that.

* * *

A blonde-haired boy in blaringly orange clothing raced helter-skelter along the path through the forest. He'd given up at last on finding his Sakura-chan, and the next best option was to locate the Uchiha, bastard though he was. This was important, he had to tell _somebody_. 

Naruto had news.

Letting some unknown, unnamed instinct take the wheel, he veered off the trail, bounding over bushes, devil-may-care. He didn't know where he was going, but something did, and that was a good enough excuse. Following the spaces between the trees, he sped deeper into the woods.

* * *

From the corner of her mind, Sakura detected the approach of two auras. 

One was farther away than the other. Orange, edged with white nervousness and the flashing red of an urgent message.

Naruto.

And the closer one, a crazy swirled yellow-white-gray-black, outlined in the black of false self-confidence, striped with magenta of misguided revenge.

Sasuke.

The pink-haired girl had the urge to laugh. She'd given the Uchiha a month's worth of nightmares, and he decided to come back for seconds. She sneered. She should have known. Sasuke was not the type to learn from punishment.

He was the type to grow addicted to it.

* * *

I'm really sorry for the long wait, but my teachers seem to have made some sort of pact to give all their tests on the same day. (Friday, usually the gift of the gods, ended up being the day when we had a major test in every subject...how can you study for that?) At any rate, I am once again nearing an awkward part of the story, so point out whatever minor mistakes you see. I'm more than willing to reload chapters if it'll make the story better. (n.n) 


	24. Lethal Injection

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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* * *

_**

**_Puppet in Pink_**

24. _Lethal Injection_

_Out from the marsh, from the foot of the misty_

_Hills and bogs..._

_Grendel came, hoping to kill_

_Anyone he could trap on this trip..._

_He moved quickly through the cloudy night,_

_Up from his swampland, sliding silently_

_-Beowulf_

Ino sighed and leaned back in her chair. Business had been slow for the Yamanakas' flower shop—surprisingly, most people preferred to pick their own flowers during these warm summer months, rather than pay for them here. Not that her family's flowers were expensive or anything...was twenty dollars a bunch really _that_ much to ask?

The blonde-haired girl's golden ponytail bobbed like a bundle of silk threads as she scanned the rows of blooms with a careful eye. _Exactly twenty-three bouquets_, a little voice whispered. A little voice that quickly grew into something more.

Her face contorted; she tried to keep it down, running after Godzilla with a doggie leash. A warning from her subconscious sent a pained tingle through her spine. Followed by an unwilling expression of shock, bordering on paralysis. Usurping her brain.

_What?!?! _That all-too-familiar voice screamed crazily. _That purple bouquet has a blue ribbon and one of the flowers is bent! The daisies were tied with beige string! You should have grouped the pansies in fours, not fives! The daffodils look..._

She'd heard enough.

As if some mad scientist had taken the wheel, Ino sprang out of her chair. It clattered to the ground. She grabbed at all of the bouquets, gathering them in her arms, untying them and screaming at herself for mangling them more. At last, she threw the plants down in a heap and sobbed, struggling to regain her grip on reality.

_Why was it always like this...?_

She wasn't someone who _looked_ like an obsessive-compulsive. She'd never had an outburst at school, or on a mission, or with her friends. Only when she was alone. Alone with the flowers. It was the flowers that did it.

The psychiatrist had said her only hope was to conquer the obsession. "To solve the problem, spend more time with the cause." But the psychiatrist had said a lot of things. Big talk it was, big talk from someone who'd never had to deal with the need, the absolute sudden necessity of keeping every petal straight, every string in a perfect bow, every stem neatly aligned with its slender comrades.

Her parents had done everything they could, drowned as they were in the psychiatrist's flowery language. She didn't blame them for that; she didn't blame them for anything—they supported her, which was all that mattered.

The blonde fought to subdue the obsession, until she finally felt it give up in retreat. She could hear the faint little demon-thing laughing in the distance, though, and knew that it knew just how weak she was. With a forced smile, Ino began to sweep up the broken stems lying in a heap on the tiled floor, all which remained of her twenty-three works of art.

* * *

Sasuke was not surprised to see the pink-haired girl. Sure, so she hadn't shown up in his Sharingan sight. So what? That was alright, perfectly alright. All part of the plan, the voice told him. Make her think she's on top, and the victory will come so much sweeter.

The girl didn't glance in his direction. Didn't even see him. _What a weakling, not fit to be a genin or anything else,_ his mind babbled incoherently, a river of endless encouragements. Forget the 'Fountain of Youth' crap; here was _real_ rejuvenation—a perpetual wellspring of it.

The Uchiha heir drank deeply to intoxication, and marched on.

Sakura looked at her teammate with an expression of mild disgust, and something more. Pity. She pitied him, though he would never have believed it. He didn't have the vigor to stand up to his demons, the poor idiot, no matter how much chakra he hoarded. It was sad. Yes, this was the much-worshipped god-idol, the Uchiha-san Sasuke-kun-bastard. Bursting with vitality, yet webbed with a filigree of hairline fractures.

A human time bomb, dangerous only to himself. Liable to self-destruct at the slightest application of pressure.

Sakura pitied him, but there was no other way. Send him to the brink of death, leave him standing on the edge. See which side he chooses—walking off the cliff, or returning to disturbingly firm ground.

The Uchiha stood before her, radiating meaningless power, trivial comma-like Sharingan wheels spiraling aimlessly in his eyes. He had chakra to burn, and he was burning it like he meant it, like he thought it would make a difference. He didn't seem at all puzzled that Sakura's chakra didn't show up in his overblown excuse for x-ray vision. Because he had other things on his mind...or rather, _in_ his mind.

Sasuke stood tall, decisive yet undecided. Half of him felt like giving a premature victory speech, to say something heroic. Words that would echo in his victim's ears as he mowed her down like the pathetic insect that she was.

He couldn't think of anything.

Instead, he rushed at the girl, wanting to relish the fear on her face. Why didn't she look at him? Why?! _Look at me!_ He screamed in his mind, blowing a stream of red-orange fire like a human dragon into the locks of pink hair.

_**Let** it burn!_

_Let **it** burn!_

_Let it **burn**!_

The pink bubbled like cherry-blossom soup and faded away into nothingness. Sasuke whirled and threw his shuriken randomly, forgetting every lesson Kakashi had taught them. The fire was only a warm-up, he reminded himself. Only a warm-up. Even that missing-nin Zabuza had had a hard time avoiding the shuriken.

Of course, Naruto had been a help, but just barely. **_He'd_** come up with all the details, though he had generously allowed his teammate some credit.

_Yeah, that's it. Don't wanna brag..._

The raven-haired boy looked around in anticipation. His weapons had to have hit Sakura, he knew, and she would probably drop conveniently out of some tree any second now. The hated pink hair would float in a pool of red, arms and legs splayed in a star-shape, body riddled with blades as a warning of what happened to those who dared challenge the great Uchiha. Any second now, any second now...

And before he could blink, there she was in front of him. But not in the way he'd counted on. Arms crossed indifferently, standing straight with her eyes closed. In her hands she held six shuriken, spread like gleaming fans of death on either side of her body. She said nothing.

Sasuke snickered. It was a frightening, unearthly sound, the laugh of a man living on his last strands of sanity and liking it way too much. He gave a surge of chakra, a call for his weapons, his shiny circular wheels of black to return to their master.

No response.

A glowing bead of silver-white dribbled from between the fingers of the pink-haired girl. Then another, and another, as the bead turned into a flowing stream of molten metal pouring to the ground. The earth drank the silver greedily, soaking it up like so much water, until nothing remained but a dark splotch in the dirt.

No more shuriken.

Sasuke refused to gape. He had no time to. The next thing he knew, his vision was swept with green.

"Gotcha."

As his brain went under the painful anesthetic, he thought of only one thing. Sakura had beat him to his victory speech.

* * *

Written during study hall—I know dobyuk princess-sama said to take it easy, but my muse doesn't seem to have a particular schedule...none that I know of, at least.

Deity of death-sama: Wow...you actually mentioned me in your profile...(tries to bow, but faints instead) Anyway, glad to know you're working on the fan-art when you can—teachers never seem to accept the excuse that you've got better things to do than algebra and essays...

Dobyuk princess-sama: About your questions...to me, it seems that Haruno Keiko had a preoccupation with the 'damsel in distress' stereotype. Perhaps (even I don't know everything about this story) she thought that by being more approachable (read: vulnerable), Sakura would be able to spend more time with Sasuke when she was 'under his protection'. She'd been pushed into the act when she was young, and it probably became a habitual behavior. Again, I'm not entirely certain; but you're right about the story being cryptic. (n.n)

And of course, my little ending blurb: review if and when you can!


	25. Far From Friends

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_**Puppet in Pink**_

25. _Far From Friends_

_This fiend is a bold_

_And famous fighter, but his claws and teeth_

_Scratching at my shield, his clumsy fists_

_Beating at my sword blade, would be helpless. I _

_Will meet him_

_With my hands empty..._

_-Beowulf_

Naruto ran faster through the underbrush, though he didn't know why. He felt pursued; a nameless voice urging him to hurry. He leapt over a log, felt the laces of his boot catch on a splinter of rotten wood. The earth swam in his vision as he sprawled across the leaf-covered forest floor.

Picking himself up, the blonde-haired boy spat out the slimy, moist-flavored dirt. The urgency in the air would not permit him even this short rest. He felt his palms sting as if they'd been rubbed with bleach, and he felt the grit coating his teeth like mutated sandpaper. But from under it all the instinct surfaced and raised its nondescript head.

It told him to keep going, and so he did.

He scrambled to regain his balance, picking up his pace. He _had_ to tell someone now, anyone-- Uchiha, Sakura, even the squirrels that were watching him curiously as he raced like a new breed of madman deeper into the woods. Hoping he would get there in time, not knowing where 'there' was or what he was so worried about. He felt like the only person alive.

And for Naruto, that was not a good thing.

* * *

The blonde-haired girl tried to relax as she lay on her futon. The sun was setting, sending ribbons of red light twining through her open window, coloring the room a pale scarlet. She glanced half-heartedly at the open book that lay nearby—one of her old romance paperbacks, the type that she'd always loved to read while fantasizing about her Sasuke-kun.

Somehow, she seemed beyond that now. The story that usually had her riveted to every word was losing its hold; becoming clichéd, overdone, almost _boring_. And that was what scared her.

_What is wrong with me these days?_

In a sudden burst of frustration, she flung the novel away, out the window, hearing its flimsy paper cover flop weakly on the street below like a dying animal. Its binding, weakened by countless poring over its pages, gave way at last. Pages of intricately formulated true-love words fluttered unheeded into alleyways. Ino buried her head in the pillow.

_What is my problem? _

_Don't I love Sasuke-kun anymore?_

_Am I giving up?_

She couldn't give up. Not now. Not ever. She had sacrificed an entire friendship to the pursuit of this prize; this coveted treasure that caught everyone's eye. She couldn't drop out of the race now. It was like the mafia—the first step in had left her over her head. But she was happy, wasn't she?

Lifting her tear-stained face, the girl set her jaw firmly. She knew that as soon as she saw her Sasuke-kun again, everything would spin back to normal. She would feel her heart racing, her cheeks warming. She would crave the sheen of the raven-hued hair, the depth of the onyx eyes, along with all the other girls.

What did it matter that he would never return her feelings? As long as she knew that _she_ was still capable of emotion, she didn't care. As long as she could feel the return of her humanity, her normalcy, nothing else made a difference.

* * *

Ignoring the crimson tint that the air had acquired, Naruto continued his mad dash to nowhere in particular. He saw a clearing up ahead, and hurried closer, like a moth to a flame. Why this was his goal, he didn't know. But he knew that as soon as he got there, it would be all right. Everything would be all right.

_Or would it?_

He skidded to a stop at the edge of the open space. The trees glared at him with a light that was not of the sun. Three huge logs lay like dark lines disrupting the red. Another was split down the middle, looking comically helpless for such a majestic giant. But these were overshadowed by the smaller things near them. Things that held much more fear than plants.

A shadowed figure hunched over, huddled on the ground and shivering, mumbling and screaming at intervals--

_Uchiha!_

--kneeling unwillingly to a blood-red goddess, green eyes blazing scarlet, silhouetted against the darkness of dusk and the pulsating light.

Naruto's eyes shut down against their will. Things such as these were not meant to be seen by normal humans. Or normal demons.The only thing he could do was scream, and scream he did, compelled to fill the fleet-footed night with his shrieks.

* * *

Well then...I hope this wasn't a confusing chapter. I also hope to update as soon as possible; preferably tomorrow, seeing as I have no school (thank god).

To Hyourin Kage-sama: Yay—this makes two authors who have me on their profiles! (bows) I'm flattered beyond all belief.

To deity of death-sama: The rest of the characters will come in if and when I write the Chuunin exam arc. (Right now, they're probably training with their sensei's, not going insane...) I have a feeling that if I _do_ write it I'll put the Chuunin arc in a 'sequel' format, mainly because it's rather cumbersome to read a story with a gazillion chapters. I've gotta wait until I know more about that part of the story, though!

To dobyuk princess-sama: Thanks for the compliments! (n.n)

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, because it really helps! And to everyone who's wondering as to the importance of Ino--well, we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?


	26. Far From Finished

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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* * *

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_**Puppet in Pink**_

26. _Far From Finished_

_And if death does take me, send the hammered_

_Mail of my armor to Higlac, return_

_The inheritance I had from Hrethel, and he _

_From Wayland. Fate will unwind as it must!_

_-Beowulf_

Sasuke cradled his head in his hands, whimpering softly. Green swept his vision in aggressive waves, scrubbing his last fragments of sanity into a cheerful froth. He'd thought the merciless tides would wash away the voices as well; pleaded in plaintive tones for them to release their miserly hold on his soul.

As would be expected, they refused to heed him, clamoring in harsh tones, swarming unchecked into his open mind. Sasuke screamed, searching for the one among the millions that he _knew_ would save him. He _knew_ it would listen, sympathize, help him find a way out of the suffocating crowd. Somehow, it would bring him back.

Because the voice was _his_ voice.

His _friend_.

The Uchiha felt himself slipping farther, and clawed desperately for the one lifeline that remained. Just over the horizon, just out of reach. He could make it, yes he could.

Kakashi tore his eyes away from the raven-haired figure that convulsed weakly on the hospital bed. "The Chuunin Exam is in three weeks," he reminded the robed figure to his left. "What do you think we should do, Hokage-sama?"

The elderly man gave a pitying glance at the ninja genius flopping pathetically among the twisted white bed-sheets. He'd consulted the crystal about this several times; had stayed up all night gazing into the clouded orb. But he had found nothing, not the slightest clue as to what had happened to the boy in the forest before the Haruno child found him. He gave a heavy sigh.

"The doctors say he's on the way towards some sort of recovery, though they have no idea as to what is wrong," the Hokage said at last. Kakashi looked relieved. "We'll just have to wait until the Exams, and see what he wants to do." Without waiting to see the silver-haired teacher's response, he shuffled down the tiled hall.

The blonde-haired boy couldn't bring himself to look at his rival. He stared at his feet. "I...I hope he gets better soon," he spoke at last, with uncomfortable solemnity.

The pink-haired girl standing next to him gave a fleeting half-smile that vanished before it could be seen.

"So do I, Naruto. So do I."

FINIS.

* * *

As the title of this chapter suggests, this story is far from over, but I'm going to continue the next part of it (the Chuunin Exam arc!) in a sequel, which should begin within this week. I'm going to have to scramble for the information on the original Chuunin Exam, seeing as my computer is still unable to download anything, but I repeat: **This is not the end of the story!**

The chapter after this is where all you reviewers are listed...in other words, you don't really have to read it. Review or email with any ideas you have for the Exams, or what comes after them!

And, lastly, Happy Thanksgiving Day/Columbus Day to all of you in Canada and the U.S.!

* * *

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_**Puppet in Pink**_

27. _Credits_

Here's to all my reviewers!

(in no particular order)

**deity of death1**-sama... is drawing a fan-art for this fic...plus I'm in her profile!

**Maya Amano**-sama.................reviewed almost every chapter (I think)

**Ashley**-sama

**Rosz-chan (Angel-Rosz-**san..long and informative reviews; helped in the crucial formation of the new Sakura

**xx-Tsumi-chan-xx**..................I have to admit...I don't really know _how _to write romance...I'd need help...

**Hyourin Kage-**sama................has me in her profile

**dobyuk princess-**sama

**Shiroi Hikari-**sama

**Fwoggie-**sama

**Chiisuchine-**sama...................was my first reviewer

**pocky no miko-**sama

**dark-anime-junkie-**sama

**faLLen-dreamz-**sama

**hikariko-**sama

**Monkey Shoes-**sama

**xia xue-**sama

**Crow-Sensei**

**HikaruOfArrow-**sama

**Anfu-**sama

**GentleWaterSoul-**sama

**MaroonSorrow-**sama

**Whisperin9 Shad0s-**sama

**Blind Kunoichi**-sama

**Unmoving-**sama

**Chocobaby-**sama

**AnimeGirlInuyasha-**sama

**dreaming star-**sama

**Solita (Alone**-sama

**rogue solus-**sama

**Jewel Song-**sama

**mariel4000-**sama

**I-hate-Sasuke-**sama

**cuito-**sama

**Search and Seek and Destroy-**sama..also helped in the formation of the new Sakura

**PyroGirl-**sama

**Psygirl-**sama

**JadedSakuya-**sama

**Chibi Malkavian-**sama

**Eternal stars-**sama

**Destiny1029-**sama

**Millie-chan**

**Yianne-21-**sama

**sonydjsnmix-**sama

**Vagrance-**sama

**Ayden-**sama

**meowow423-**sama

**Alden-san**

**x Lindsay x-**sama

**The Sadist-**sama

**QuasiAngel-**sama

**Smiter-**sama

**Mary-**sama

**The Winged Messenger-**sama

**Wicked Fantasies-**sama

**Genma: The Destroyer-**sama

**Gopu-**sama

**Al-**sama

**anonymous**

**Anonymous**

**Ayce Shade-**sama

**Sonoda Aki-**sama

**Silent Angel-**sama

**Sakura FAN-**sama

* * *

Thanks to all of you, even the small number who were 'flamers'—you've helped to make this fanfic what it is today. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is anyone's guess, though. Anyways, you can expect a sequel to begin within the next week, so do not despair!


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